Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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The Grace Network, which helps local people in crisis, has opened its pumpkin patch on Mulberry Road. At left, Jenniffer Jamison, executive director of Grace, watches as her 11-year-old daughter, Katie, strains to lift a big pumpkin. |
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Thursday, October 8, 2009
By GINNY WRAY - Bulletin Staff Writer
What can you do with 1,213 pumpkins? Raise money for the Grace Network.
Grace has begun its annual “Pumpkin Patch” pumpkin sale to raise funds to help needy area residents with food, utility and housing expenses and other necessities.
The pumpkins were delivered Sunday to the lot behind First Baptist Church of Martinsville, at the corner of Mulberry Road and Starling Avenue.
“My prayer was that the truck would be on time,” said Grace Executive Director Jenniffer Jamison. Instead, it was 20 minutes early, and then she worried that no one would be there to help unload the pumpkins that had traveled from New Mexico through a company called Pumpkin Patch USA.
But within 10 minutes, about 70 people began showing up, Jamison said. There were youth from CHILL (Communities Helping Improve Local Lives), area churches and schools, church groups and members of Girl Scout Troop 691, she said.
“Before the truck was unloaded, people were stopping” to buy pumpkins, she said.
They have a lot to choose from. There are pumpkins of all shapes, sizes and colors as well as a variety of goards for sale. The pumpkins cost from $3 to $25.
“I tell people they’re not buying a pumpkin; they’re actually keeping someone’s lights on,” Jamison said. “It’s not about the pumpkin; it’s all about helping the client.”
Don’t tell that to the children at the patch on Wednesday. Toddlers made their way around the pumpkins, stopping to try and lift ones of different sizes as some parents snapped photos.
A display of fall decorations is set up for photographs, and on Saturdays, acrylic paint will be available for children who want to paint their pumpkins on the spot, Jamison said. Also on Saturdays, story time for children will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and people are asked to bring canned food for Grace clients.
The pumpkins are being sold Mondays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 12:30 to 4 p.m.
The patch is staffed by volunteers. On Wednesday, they were from StarTek; Friday, they will be from the Henry, Martinsville and Patrick Counties Association of Realtors. Church members and Grace associates also help man the patch, Jamison said.
And in an effort to get everyone in the community involved, she said children from the First Baptist Church after-school program put the pumpkins to bed (moving them on their sides) on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and the preschoolers from the church wake them up (place them upright) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. That helps prevent deterioration from pumpkins sitting too long in one spot on the ground.
Also, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is matching one third of the funds raised at the patch, Jamison said.
Last year’s sale raised about $3,500, and Grace hopes to do better than that this year, Jamison said.
However, she added, the pumpkin sale is more about raising awareness of Grace Network and less about raising money. |
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