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THE
GREAT PUMPKIN CONTEST
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| The Great Pumpkin Contest is held every year around
Halloween. A giant pumpkin is brought into the mall and visitors
take a chance guessing the weight to win a prize. |
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| Darlene Bourdeau Makes Perfect Guess In
First Annual Great Pumpkin Contest |
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| Darlene Bourdeau, a 13-year old Grade 8 student from
Pinecrest
Public School
was the only one among thousands of entrants to correctly come up with the
correct weight of 368 pounds in the First Annual Hanmer Valley Shopping
Centre’s Great Pumpkin Contest held in October and November 2005..
Darlene says she didn’t think much about the guess, simply putting down
the first three numbers that came into her head. Darlene appeared in the
photo with Val Mazzuca, owner of the HVSC and Anthony Van Alphen, the man
who grew the giant pumpkin for the contest. Anthony, who is a retired INCO
worker, has been growing one pumpkin each year for about 15 years now. He
plants carefully selected seeds and then pollinates one pumpkin in late
July or early August. By trimming away all of the rest of the pumpkins,
the plant is allowed to focus all of the nourishment into one
pumpkin…and presto – you have a giant pumpkin. This is the largest
Anthony has ever grown. The previous record was 332 pounds. Next year he
is going to try to have the pumpkin pollinated in July to see if he can
hit 400 or more pounds. Make sure you look for it in the mall next
October. For Darlene, it was quite a month. She just received a $600
scholarship from a Toronto-based modeling company and now wins the $50 top
prize in the Great Pumpkin Contest. The Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre
thanks all shoppers who took part in the contest.
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