Pumpkin Carving

Last Friday, Culbertson House hosted its annual pumpkin carving event, bringing the Mercersburg Academy community together for a fun night of Halloween festivities and delicious s’mores. What began as an outdoor activity during the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a beloved school tradition, with students carving over 120 pumpkins each year.

This year, the event introduced a new inter-dorm competition intended to encourage friendly rivalry. Culbertson House Prefect-in-Training Yoonu Park ’29 stated, “I think the competition made the event more interesting, as there were actually some stakes. So I think people took a lot more time in making and carving the pumpkins, as there was an intense atmosphere among people.” Fellow Prefect-in-Training Noah Park ’29 added, “It’s a friendly competition. It is not meant to pick the dorms apart, but to bring them together through having a fun time.”

Behind the scenes, faculty and students worked together to organize the important event, making sure everything went smoothly. Dorm Dean Kristi Magalhães noted that Culbertson residents met with Director of Student Activities Andrea DeLuca to plan the logistics. 

Noah Park explained, “It took a lot more time than expected because there were a lot of aspects we had to take into account, such as the food truck and how many tables we had to bring over. There are a lot of details that I really overlooked last year, but [this year] we had to focus as the host.”

Once the event began, students put their creativity on full display, bringing their unique ideas and artistic talents to their pumpkins. Charlie Higgins ’29 said, “My inspiration was Yoonu Park, a golfer. I saw a golf ball and was like, wait a minute. What if it looked like there was a meteor golf ball crashing into my pumpkin? And then I just tried to make it come to life as best as possible. It turned out pretty good.”

For some, making their ideas a reality proved to be harder than it looked. Yoonu Park explained, “Because of safeguarding issues, the sharpness of the knives wasn’t really good. So we had to put a lot of pressure to actually carve the pumpkins. Otherwise, it would look kind of sketchy, and the lines would appear kind of messy instead of straight.”

For many students, the event was more than just a Halloween tradition. It created many fun memories and strengthened the bond between students. Higgins said, “My favorite memories were drinking hot apple cider and just messing around with people and looking at their pumpkins. I really enjoyed the amount of people that came and how even the kids that didn’t submit were putting an effort into it.”

Ultimately, the event brought the Mercersburg community together through a fun and festive tradition. The event received rave reviews. “I really enjoyed it,” said Angela Tang ’28. “It was nice taking a break and it was also, it was really nice weather and I liked the music.” 

As Yoonu Park summarized, “I think the Mercersburg community is all about bringing people together. Events like this help create community by fostering conversation and making people connect through enjoyable activities.”