Act of
Pumpkins
It's good to Act out loud!
Don't knock something, build something
Read the Story behind "The Random Act of Pumpkins".
On October 25th, 2008 John and Cynthia Pringle
owners of Jake by the Lake; in the spirit of "Life is
Good" decided to forge forward with the optimistic
nature of
the brand and organize their first Pumpkin Festival;
which was to be held at the Westport spring and
harbor. In August 2008, shortly after opening "Jake by
the Lake" the team began organizing, planning and
actually videoing the event from the initial planning
phases to completion of their goal. The goal was
simply to
have fun, raise $500.00 for the Children's Wish
Foundation and cave 500 pumpkins before 5 pm, place
them on the Westport Island and illuminate at dusk.
With little to no festival planning experience but lots
of enthusiasm the team drew their mark in the sand
and began what was to become "The Random Act of
Pumpkins".
John smiles and says, "we quickly learned in year one
that we could not control everything, such as the
weather. People repeatedly told us we could not
achieve
all this and we were taking on more than we could
possible handle”. Cynthia Pringle says "in hind sight
they were probably right” but quickly reminds me at
the
end of the day, with help from our friends, family and
the community we achieved and exceeded every goal
that we had set. Not to mention, how cool those
orange pumpkins looks shining in the harbor. "I
remember walking down to the harbor the next day
around 10 am, it was brisk but sunny, there were
people
everywhere walking, looking and pointing at
astonishment at all those pumpkins, 503 to be exact",
remarks John Pringle.
In 2009 the team decided to do less planning and
more acting, thus the name "Random Act of
Pumpkins". The goal just carve and light 1000
pumpkins and try to
raise some money for Children's Wish, and guess
what, they did just that. John reminds of his highlight
which was a 10 minute random interview with CBC
radio's Fresh Air show. Cynthia will always remember
her younger cousin Julie Sanders carving pumpkins,
wearing a bandanna after going thou a battle with
cancer, which she would unfortunately lose only a few
months later.
In 2010 (dedicating the entire event to Julie) John and
Cynthia took the same approach, less planning more
acting. We asked others to act out on our behalf and
holy cow, were we surprised. Julie’s Husband, Mark,
organized his own Random Act of Pumpkins in
Frankford, Ontario and carved 1218 pumpkins, which
he then
delivered to Westport for our event. Other small
Random Act of Pumpkins were also being reported
locally. A band performed at Cottage Coffee, which
inspired
everyone to jump in and help carve the orange
mountain of just over 1000 pumpkins sitting in front of
the store. At the end of the day, this time we were the
ones who were astonished. The total number of
pumpkins in the village was 2350 and all night long
cars after car drove thou the village with their windows
down in the rain pointing and looking at all those
pumpkins.
So how do you top that? John said that he was ready
to throw in the towel this year and give it a rest but
Cynthia still wanted to do something. So this year the
team has decided to throw down a challenge to every
single person, optimistic or pessimistic, business
owner or politician, teacher or student, young or old,
are
all invited to act out and have their own Random Act
of Pumpkins. This year's Random Act of Pumpkins will
take place on Oct 29th, 2011. Cottage Coffee will
begin selling pumpkins on Oct 10th, with all profits
going to the Children's Wish foundation. Stay tuned for
what events are being planned in Westport for this
year's event. We encourage you all to get out and act
out this year and help us raise some money for
Children's Wish. For 2011, all of the events and times
are listed on our Act 4 page of this website.
Foreman Farms is a family owned and operated business north of Kingston on Brewer’s Mills Rd. Five years ago Foreman purchased a
Where the magic comes from.
greenhouse operation from a neighbor who produced hydroponic tomatoes. Since then the business has been expanded to include
a variety of fresh products including hydroponic tomatoes (beefsteak, cluster and cherry), garlic, sweet corn, patty pan squash,
carrots, onions and shallots. In addition Foreman Farms sell bedding plants and have a custom planting service, their hanging baskets and
planters are superior.In the fall we sell potted mums, pumpkins, Indian corn, acorn squash, butternut squash and starting mid-November Christmas
greens including pots, wreaths, baskets and centerpieces. We offer demonstrations for making fall decor items with Indian Corn as well as give
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tours of our tomato operation. Of course, we will have tomato products for sale i.e. fresh tomatoes, salsa, chili sauce.
