To the editor:

Last week I was nervously watching the Saturday forecast worried that the impending rain would drive away much-needed volunteers to help unload the pumpkins at St. John’s. 

Thankfully the rain held off and the volunteers showed up. Thank you so very much to everyone who showed up and helped unload more than three thousand five hundred pumpkins on what was supposed to be a very wet Saturday morning. We had student groups, sports teams, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and many others from around town that gave up their time to graciously help us with this undertaking. I cannot express how much we at St. John’s appreciate this help making the Pumpkin Patch possible.  

I look forward to sitting under the tent every fall as we open the Pumpkin Patch and watching one of the greatest gifts of living in Barrington, the great sense of community we share. It is so wonderful getting to meet so many of you, watching friends and neighbors connect and make new connections, and watching all the kids either diligently searching for the perfect pumpkin or running around playing tag with one another. 

Watching all these interactions highlight what a wonderful community we have in Barrington, it is such a delight seeing our community come together in these ways. 

In addition to what it brings to our community this Pumpkin Patch reaches far beyond Barrington. While it does serve as a fund-raiser for St. John’s the majority of the money actually goes back to the organization that supplies the pumpkins, Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers. For around thirty years Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers has grown their pumpkins in Navajo Land, creating over seven hundred seasonal jobs each year, in addition to the year round staff, in a community that has one of the highest unemployment rates in our country. So while this event certainly benefits our community, its greatest benefits are those it brings to the Pumpkin Patch Fundraiser community in Navajo Land. 

As we are getting this fall season underway I want to say thank you to each and every one of you who came out to help unload the pumpkins this past week and to everyone who will come out and visit the Pumpkin Patch in the coming month. 

We look forward to welcoming you to St. John’s and helping you find the perfect pumpkin.

The Rev. Patrick J. Greene

Rector

St. John’s Episcopal Church