At the Forest Park Recreation Board’s first pumpkin smash last year, over 1.6 tons of pumpkins were collected and composted. While the pumpkins smashed Nov. 9 at the field south of The Altenheim haven’t been collected and weighed yet, the second annual event attracted locals who demolished numerous pumpkins that were well past their Halloween prime.
Forest Park’s new pumpkin smash event is a way to encourage locals to dispose of their jack-o-lanterns in a sustainable and fun way — by swinging a 15-foot long hammer that crushes the pumpkins on top of a tree trunk.
“You just pull it up and the weight of the hammer itself comes down on top of the pumpkin and smashes it,” said Amy Binns-Calvey, chair of the recreation board. “Last year, everybody was so delighted. I laughed every time a pumpkin was smashed. I thought it would get old; it never gets old.”
Republic Services will collect the pumpkin residuals to compost them at Thelen Materials in Antioch.
By composting their pumpkins, smash participants helped to reduce the amount of methane gas that would otherwise go into the atmosphere if the pumpkins were thrown in the garbage. Composting also gives soil necessary water and nutrients.
The idea for last year’s inaugural smash came after Binns-Calvey read an article about a similar event in another town. Because the rec board encourages composting, board members thought it would be a good idea to recreate it in Forest Park.
Binns-Calvey’s husband Geoff Binns-Calvey, who works creating special effects for TV commercials, constructed the giant hammer to demolish the big orange gourds.
Binns-Calvey said her husband built a small model before constructing the larger-than-life-size hammer. She said he also included an air horn on the structure to warn those standing nearby when the next hammer was about to drop.
“He has a dial on it, so you can tell when it’s safe and unsafe,” she said of her husband’s creation, especially since the hammer is easy for a child to set into motion. “We’ve got a great protocol to make sure nobody’s nearby that pumpkin.”
This year’s pumpkin smash also had a pumpkin toss, where participants threw their pumpkins at a target, as well as pumpkin bowling. These events, Binns-Calvey said, were added to help incrementally grow the pumpkin mash.
“We’re hoping it becomes more and more of a community event for people to celebrate this time of year — and composting,” Binns-Calvey said.