Halloween’s over, college applications are in, and fall foliage is at its peak. What better time to hold a pumpkin smash!
Last Saturday, our chapter of Clean Up Give Back set up a table at the local community pumpkin smash (sponsored by Roosevelt Middle School's Green 4 Good volunteers and SCARCE), where numerous residents of Oak Park and River Forest brought their leftover Halloween pumpkins. The majority of the donors for this event are younger families, so we decided to involve teenagers, specifically students taking AP Environmental Science at OPRF High School! With the help of the teachers of this class, our chapter helped to teach students about methane emissions as a result of organic waste in landfills. And, we ended up having multiple students stop by to weigh and smash their pumpkins.
We had some amazingly decorated pumpkins show up: one with a makeshift tongue coming out of its mouth, one with painted ghosts, and, my personal favorite, a pumpkin with “1989 TS (Taylor Swift)” carved in it.
As I helped out for the three hour smash, I also observed something that really inspired me. Multiple sixth grade boys involved in their school’s Green Club had signed up to help transfer incoming pumpkins from car trunks to wagons. I wish that my elementary school had provided these opportunities. Even though they screamed non-stop for hours and hours, I was still inspired by their eagerness to help the environment and extensive knowledge about composting. Maybe in a few years they will be teen board members for Clean Up Give Back!
Teenagers at OPRF ended up smashing 98 pumpkins and 842.9 pounds of pumpkin guts, which prevented over 70 pounds of methane gas from entering the environment. They delivered pumpkins from neighbors, friends, and their own houses. And, the pumpkin smash as a whole ended up with between 900-1000 pumpkins smashed and composted.
My car, like last year, still reeks of rotten pumpkin guts. But at the same time I’m relieved to have helped out so much and am saddened by the fact that I won’t be here next year to hold another. Here’s to another successful smash!!
