SYRACUSE — Hundreds of local residents have taken carving knife in hand to help craft the magical faces and mystical designs that will shine at Syracuse's Pumpkin Walk this weekend.
According to Melinda Allred, the event's chairwoman, it takes hundreds to pull off the annual activity.
"It's a huge project, and what's neat is it's all volunteer work," she said.
Nearly 100 people help pick the pumpkins and then 200-300 do the carving each year, Allred added.
The city's Pumpkin Walk gives people a chance to take a free stroll through almost 1,000 lighted pumpkins carved into every design imaginable.
"You see everything from the cutesy little triangle-eyed jack-o'-lanterns to Lord Voldemort," Allred said, adding that last year Jason Child of West Point carved the Harry Potter villain's face on his pumpkin.
The Syracuse City Arts Council hosted the activity its inaugural year. The following year, Allred was made chairwoman of the event.
This will be the fifth year that she, with the help of many local residents, has brought the Pumpkin Walk to Syracuse.
But her first Pumpkin Walk happened years ago when she was about 8 years old.
Pumpkin Walk beginnings
"I don't ever remember not doing it," Allred said.
The first Pumpkin Walk was put on by Allred's grandparents, Chester and Beverly Montgomery, who are from West Point.
"They started it as something to do for teenagers in the neighborhood around Halloween, so they weren't getting into trouble," Allred said.
The Montgomerys called a local farmer and got old pumpkins donated for their early walks. People from their neighborhood would come over and carve the pumpkins before Halloween.
Allred said her grandfather even created instruments to use to carve intricate designs on the pumpkins.
"We still have a box full of the tools he made," she said
The Montgomerys owned a preschool in West Point called Kiddie Kollege, and that's where the dozens of freshly carved jack-o'-lanterns went on display each year the night before Halloween and again on All Hallows Eve.
As a young girl, Allred was in charge of taking a candle around the yard, relighting the pumpkins as the flames blew out. "That smell still is intoxicating to me," she said of the aroma of burning pumpkin.
Later on, the family learned that strings of Christmas lights were easier to use to illuminate the many pumpkins that were scattered across the Kiddie Kollege's campus.
The Pumpkin Walk soon became a family tradition. In the early days, Chester wore a gorilla costume and walked around scaring adults, while Beverly dressed as a witch.
Bringing tradition to city
Allred said the small pumpkin tradition her grandparents started got bigger and bigger every year, averaging 5,000-6,000 visitors a night.
As Allred's grandparents got older, her brother, Sheldon Nixon, took over the Pumpkin Walk with the help of his friend Jason Child.
In 1996 Chester Montgomery passed away, and that's when Beverly said it would be a good time to stop the tradition that was getting too big.
There was no Pumpkin Walk for several years, until Allred brought the tradition to Syracuse.
"The city was trying to figure out something to do for Halloween," Allred said. "Nothing they were doing was catching on."
So the Syracuse resident suggested a Pumpkin Walk.
"It's in my blood," she said.
Each year the city's new Halloween tradition has grown. The annual Pumpkin Walk is held the weekend before Halloween. It will continue today and Saturday from 7-10 p.m. at Centennial Park, 1787 S. 2000 West, behind the city building.
The past couple of years, numbers have been fewer due to bad weather, but Allred said that the city's biggest year drew 10,000 guests.
Beth Kofoed, a Syracuse city employee, said it has been fun to watch the community come together through the Pumpkin Walk.
"We really try to make it as family friendly as we can," she said. "A lot of the teenagers like to go to the haunted, scary things and this doesn't have any of that element."
Kofoed said she has seen families come from throughout Davis County to see the pumpkins in Syracuse.
"I guess that's what really makes a community is to be able to have people come, and no matter if you live in Syracuse or you don't, you can come and have a great night that doesn't cost anything, and you can be together," she said.
Preparing the pumpkins
Allred said that the city has helped bring her family's tradition back to life.
"We couldn't have done it without them," she said. "They buy all the stuff we need."
Each year the pumpkins are gathered by local youth groups a few weeks in advance. The pumpkins are collected from a local farm just off of 3000 West in Syracuse. The family used to get the pumpkins donated, and they were the leftovers in the field. Now the city pays for fresh pumpkins each year.
Many of the pumpkins are still carved at the Montgomery's Kiddie Kollege in West Point where it all started.
Allred said anyone from the local area is invited to carve. Several Young Men, Young Women and Young Single Adult groups from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints help carve dozens of the pumpkins.
Kofoed said a lot of families will check out pumpkins from the city to carve.
"They come and take 10 or 15 and carve them and bring them back," she said. "Then they come to the Pumpkin Walk and see what others have done. It has been a great family time to be able to spend together."
Allred holds a neighborhood block party each year in October to carve.
"I'll bring pumpkins and everyone comes over and carves," she said.
Carving starts no more than two weeks before the Pumpkin Walk each year, because Allred said that otherwise the pumpkins would get too moldy.
"Grandpa learned that if you scrape them out really dry and spray them with a disinfectant like Lysol, it inhibits the mold," she said.
Allred said that each year they probably lose 100 pumpkins to mold or heat. The largest number of pumpkins they have displayed is 834.
Honoring grandpa
Although the city purchases hundreds of pumpkins each year and pays to put on the annual Pumpkin Walk, admission to the event remains free. That was the one stipulation that Chester Montgomery had about his family's annual tradition. He said that if admission was free, then anyone could come.
Allred said that is still important to her.
"I will quit doing it if they ever charge," she said, "true to my grandfather's request that it remain free."
Although the Pumpkin Walk has moved cities, Allred said her grandmother, Beverly, still comes to help. She sits under a blanket in a camping chair with a counter.
Allred said she continues her family's tradition in Syracuse, because she loves to hear the comments that people make as they stroll through the hundreds of jack-o'-lanterns. But more than that, Allred said that helping with the Pumpkin Walk allows her to feel close to her late grandfather.
"Every time we light up those pumpkins, something lights up in me, too, and I know he's watching from somewhere up above," she said.
E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com