SAUGUS — More than 1,200 pumpkins were trucked in to fill the First Congregational Church’s pumpkin patch and unloaded bucket brigade-style Saturday afternoon.
“We call it the conga line,” said Carolyn Davis, who runs the pumpkin patch. “For 15 years we’ve been out there doing this. Many people say to us that they wait for our pumpkins to come. We have a variety of sizes and colors. The children love the little ones because they fit in their hands. It’s good for everyone.”
The pumpkins come from the Navajo Reservation in Farmington, N.M. They are supplied by Pumpkins USA, an organization started more than 30 years ago in Georgia, where a farmer, Richard Hamby, had a large number of pumpkins he needed to sell and met a minister who needed funds.
The farmer and the minister came to an agreement that Hamby would let a church in North Carolina sell his pumpkins, and they would share the profits.
The minister has since moved on, but the church still has a Pumpkin Patch each year.
Pumpkin Patch USA has since expanded to include more than 1,000 pumpkin patches representing churches, youth groups, scouts, schools, fraternal organizations, habitat groups, and other civic organizations.
The pumpkins were first grown in the Carolinas and Georgia. But when Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, the crop was destroyed. When looking for a new place to grow pumpkins, the organization found they especially liked the Navajo Reservation pumpkins.
More than 700 Native Americans are employed by Pumpkin Patch USA during the harvest months of September and October, which has left an impact on a region with 42 percent unemployment, according to the organization’s website.
Saturday’s delivery was the second for the patch. Last month, 2,500 were unloaded. Davis expects most will be sold, to pay for a college scholarship for a Saugus student, and any left over will be given away on Nov. 1.
