WAIMEA — Hay rides, petting zoos and pumpkins are synonymous with fall festivals.
This year, people from around the island can check out a new celebration in North Hawaii: the Waimea Pumpkin Patch Fall Festival.
The free event will replace past pumpkin events at Hawaii Preparatory Academy and Kohala Educational Farm. Planned and funded by Waimea Preservation Association (WPA), hundreds of pumpkins of all sizes will be displayed at Waimea District Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 14, in addition to numerous activities and booths.
WPA members Bill Sanborn and Donni Sheather came up with the idea four months ago.
“It will be an annual celebration of Waimea’s autumn harvest and season,” Sheather said. “Its purpose is to support and promote Waimea’s agrarian community, lifestyle and its rural neighbors.”
Activities will range from carnival games, pony rides, face painting, a petting zoo, pie contests and food trucks to educational and informational booths, handmade crafts, vendors and live entertainment including Waimea’s own Darlene Ahuna. The Waimea Fire Department and EMTs will also display their trucks.
Goods sold at the event will not be duplicated.
“We want each vendor to be able to make the most of their dollar,” Sheather said. “We just don’t want people to lose out so we convinced people to do other things.”
Tickets will be sold in monetary amounts of $1, $5 and $10 to be used at the various booths. Sheather estimates around 1,200 people will attend the inaugural fall festival event.
Pumpkins will be supplied by farmers Sam Robinson and Noah Dodd in Lakeland, others from a new pumpkin patch planted in August by local children as a Hawaii Isle Police Activities League project in Waimea and an additional supply from Rincon Farms Waimea.
Community service booths will include Family Service Hawaii, Alex and Duke DeRego Foundation, Rotary of North Hawaii, Human Trafficking Coalition, Rescue Food Program, KARES (Kohala Animal Rescue Relocation &Educational Services) and the Domestic Violence Advocate Committee (DVAC).
“DVAC is looking for ways to raise funds to support future projects, such as a victim navigator that would help victims get away safely, filing TROs, counseling and housing to legal help,” Community Police Officer May Lee said.
“We also want to fund a project to print discreet information cards that might assist a victim looking for help,” she continued. “The pumpkin festival is a perfect venue because October is national domestic violence awareness month. DVAC is focused on helping victims in Waimea as there are currently no resources available. Victims currently need to go to Hilo or Kona to get any assistance.”
DVAC will have both an indoor and outdoor booth.
“The one outside will have baked items for sale to support future projects,” Lee said. “The booth inside will have information on domestic violence. We also will have a memorial display for people to buy a candle and ribbon in remembrance of someone they lost to domestic violence or is maybe currently in a domestic situation. We will have T-shirts and balloons for sale as well.”
Both Lee and Officer Thomas Koyanagi will be at the indoor booth to answer questions and provide information.
The fall festival will primarily benefit nonprofits.
“Essentially, WPA is trying to umbrella nonprofits for the alignment of being able to collectively do things together and it’s our hope that over time that’s going to bring the community closer together,” Sheather said. “It’s about understanding what all of the nonprofits’ purposes are and want to accomplish. The WPA’s role is really just to make the structure work with the District Park.”
Funding wasn’t easy to launch the event, but WPA members were insistent.
“We’re funding this by the seats of our pants with our own money and generous sponsors,” Sanborn said. “Because this event is now nonprofit run, it’s a new paradigm. HPA had done the pumpkin patch proprietary and when they stopped doing it we decided the community needed something like that. It’s going to be different this year because we have more of the community participating from all walks of life.”
Numerous community members have also generously donated their services for free. Looking at the bigger picture, WCA hopes the festival will expand in the future to counter the annual Cherry Blossom in the spring.
“We’re hoping that it could be a bigger fall festival and maybe even include some of the other events that people have in the fall, such as the Rotary’s Oktoberfest, horse races, or any Halloween type events that could actually be collectively as beneficial to all the individuals,” Sheather said.
WCA is still seeking help from volunteers.
“We got free tents so we’re hoping that we can get some help, and we’re looking for transportation for the pumpkins from Lakeland to the site,” Sanborn said. “There are some more needs so if anyone can offer to help we would appreciate it. We just want to have fun.”
To volunteer or for more information, call Bill Sanborn at 895-1122, Donni Sheather at 938-9667, Patricia Schumacher at 345-7900 or Theresa Fernandez at 989-7182.
Waimea District Park is located at 67-1315 Ala Ohia Road in Waimea. The District Park is next to the Parker Ranch Arena and across the street from the Luala’i subdivision. Ala Ohia Road can be accessed off of Mamalahoa Highway coming from the south or Pukalani Road from the east.