The sun was about to set as The Great Pumpkin Smash began Friday at The Preserve of Highland Park.
The golden-hour lighting illuminated the warm hues of orange pumpkins amid a backdrop of fall colors on trees bordering the parking lot where the event was held.
People carried heavy pumpkins from their vehicles, sometimes one in each arm. One folding stroller was used not for children, but rather to transport several pumpkins to the event.
There were white pumpkins among the colorful gourds of various shapes and sizes. Tree stumps and custom wooden mallets were available at the smashing stations.
The third-annual Highland Park pumpkin smash was one of many such events over the weekend in Lake County, including Grayslake, Lincolnshire, Vernon Hills, Wauconda, Gurnee and Round Lake.
Libertyville’s Pumpkin Composting and Compost Giveback is scheduled for next Saturday at Adler Park Pool from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to bring buckets to take home locally sourced rich compost for their gardens or yards. Smashers are asked to remove candles, stickers and other decorations from their Halloween pumpkins.
For Highland Park, the Great Pumpkin Smash was an intergenerational family memory-maker.
“My first experience with a pumpkin smash was when I was a grad student in college, and I was volunteering at Plant Chicago,” said Casey Lawler, the planning and projects supervisor with the Park District of Highland Park. “It was very fun.”
“It’s nice to see every year how more and more communities are participating, and it’s growing,” he said. “A lot of families come: the parents, the kids, they all get involved. It extends the holiday. It’s a fun way to keep pumpkins out of landfills, and also just bring people together.”
Wayne and Marla Schachtel of Highland Park watched their grandson Spencer, 7, of Northbrook, hoist a mallet like a lumberjack as he did his smashing.
“After a while, it gets tiring and then it starts to get really fun and slippery,” Spencer said.
The Schachtel family also brought food to benefit the Moraine Township Food Pantry in Highland Park.
Lindsey Anderson, the Park District’s recreation supervisor-enrichment, said, “We have a craft table going with some (greeting) cards for the food donations … and then we have the free cider for the families.”
“I’m actually new to the agency … so I’m excited to see this event for the first time,” Anderson said.
Go Green HP hosted a community table staffed by several Lake County volunteers, including Jenny Futterman, a Go Green HP steering committee member.
“Here, we’re really encouraging composting, and either using the curbside (municipal) composting or doing backyard composting, keeping food scraps out of the landfill, which causes methane, which is way worse,” Futterman said.
Highland Park’s pumpkin smash remnants filled a composting bin via Lakeshore Recycling Systems.
Adding to the contents of the composting bin were Vonda Love of Highland Park and son Teddy, 5, who said he was having, “a million fun.”
“We talked about how we were going to bring the pumpkins here, and turn them into food for the plants,” Vonda Love said.
Lawler said the event was a learning opportunity for all ages.
“It’s just a fun way to keep sustainability to a level that everyone can understand,” he said. “We’re keeping pumpkins out of landfills, and we’re putting those nutrients into the water (and) back into the soil.
“They’re not going to waste,” Lawler added. “They are being rejuvenated into our Earth. It’s kind of a nice full-circle thing.”
