St. Luke's UMC has provided the community with the Pumpkin Patch since 1990. We will open Sunday, October 2nd after we feed all our help and unload about 3,000 pumpkins by hand from the truck and will remain open till October 31st or until we sell out of Pumpkins.
We have families that come out each year and some of the parents tell us that they came to the patch when they were growing-up. We encourage families to bring cameras and spend as much time as they want taking pictures and letting the children discover pumpkins. We put out signs on Youree Drive about 2 or 3 weeks prior to the patch opening to let our neighbors know when we will get our pumpkins. We also post patch events on the electronic bill board.
In the past twenty years, the Pumpkin Patch has donated about $170,000 to missions. The Pumpkin Patch is a mission project for St Luke’s and 100% of the profit from the sale of pumpkins is given to local missions. Last year we were able to donate $7,800 to local missions. Just a sample of the recipients of donations have been; Cavanaugh Adolescent Center, Christian Services, LA Methodist Children's Home, Gingerbread House, Habitat for Humanity, Oakwood home for women, Providence House, Sager – Brown UMCOR, Shreveport/Bossier Community Renewals, Samaritan Counseling Center, STEP-UP, Shreveport Rescue Mission, YMCA Family Violence Center, Week-end of the Cross and Heart of Hope.
Every year we incorporate a little something new and different in the patch. It’s always nice to see and hear the reactions of our visitors. A Saturday or Sunday concert in the Patch is being planned again this year. We also provide a safe Trunk or Treat event for our visitors and neighborhood families. Times and dates for such events will be posted as soon as we make the final arrangements.
Not only do we sell pumpkins but we sell Pumpkin Cookbooks, tee shirts, hay, bottled water, cookies and paint faces to cover our overhead and supplies needed to run the patch for 4 weeks.
Story Time dates for the school children to visit the Pumpkin Patch in 2011 are October 10th – October 14th. Due to the number of visitors we have, we request that school groups make a reservation to visit the patch during these dates. We plan to see 2,250 school children this year. The children will spend one hour with us as we have Story time/Pumpkin discovery and Pumpkin Patch time. Because of the level of the entertainment we will only be able to schedule children in 4 year old preschool and Kindergarten. We ask that each child bring $1.00 to purchase a small pumpkin and that each teacher bring plenty of parents to help watch the children. Reservations can be made below.
Peace and Pumpkins
Janice Boller, Pumpkin Patch Coordinator
Home Ph (318) 861-2622
Cell Ph (318) 218-1004
E-mail: Jaboller@bellsouth.net
