Residents Invited to Participate in Virtual Pumpkin Carving Contest
With COVID-19 restrictions limiting large gatherings, the City has decided to cancel its annual Pumpkin Walk for 2020. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun with this year’s Halloween celebrations!
Residents are invited to submit photos of their pumpkin-carving activities - and final jack o’lanterns – to be entered to win one of two Zombie Grams, delivered to your home by Neighbourhood Dance Works on Saturday, October 31. Photos must be emailed to communications@stjohns.ca by October 28 to be eligible for the prize draw. This prize is valued at $150.
Prize winners will be selected by random draw. To be entered to win, please email a photo of you with your pumpkin (to verify that you are the creator) as well as a photo of your finished pumpkin alone. Please indicate in the email if we may use one or both of your photos on our social media feeds and provide your local address (which will not be shared online and is for the purposes of the contest only.)
Compost Your Creation
Did you know that removing your pumpkins from your property will help curb Halloween-centered crime? 50% of crimes reported to police on Halloween are crimes against property, many involving the Jack o’lantern.
The simplest thing to do with your pumpkin is to compost it. Pumpkins are more than 90 percent water and have an array of nutrients helpful to the soil when they’re composted.
If you don’t want to use the pumpkin for your own composting, we’ll gladly take it for use in our city parks. Place your pumpkin in a paper yard waste bag and put it at the curb on your recycling day or drop it off at the Robin Hood Bay Residential Drop Off.
A pumpkin compost collection site will also be set up in the large gravel lot on The Boulevard on Sunday, November 1 from noon to 5 p.m. To offer a low-contact drop-off, GFL bins will be set up in the parking lot. Throughout the afternoon, the City will offer random prizes to those who attend.
For more on the benefits of composting, visit curbitstjohns.ca.