Bethel Park display of hundreds of carved pumpkins benefits National MS Society
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Amy Reuschling is the Pumpkin Queen.
Tammy Engel helps the cause as a "gutter."
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Brenda Payseure contemplates what she’s scraped from inside a pumpkin.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Kelly, Maddie and Mia Reuschling with some of their family’s 146 pumpkins, October 2015
Harry Funk/The Almanac
A sizable Halloween dectoration precedes the pumpkins in the Reuschlings’ yard.
This pumpkin is among the initial batch to be carved in anticipation of the Reuschling's Halloween weekend display.
This time of year serves as a strong reminder of what's inside a pumpkin.
There are hundreds of 'em at the Reuschling home in Bethel Park.
The Reuschling yard on Halloween Weekend 2020
It's not the Great Pumpkin, Linus and Sally.
A 2020 Pumpkin Posse creation
Nothing rhymes with orange, so it would be difficult to compose a poem about what transpires in a certain Bethel Park yard each October.
Suffice it to say that by the time Amy Reuschling and her helpers are finished, the property at Eastview Road and Aljean Drive is awash in a veritable sea of pumpkins.
Appropriately enough in that context, Amy and her husband, Rich, pave the way for the onslaught of winter squash cultivars with a ghostly pirate ship on prominent display. And come Halloween, the sizable seasonal decoration is joined by hundreds of carved, glowing near-spheres, all in the name of a worthy cause.
Following Amy’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2000, she and members of her family participated in fundraising and awareness events on behalf of the National MS Society. And since 2015, they have staged a fundraiser of their own, asking those who visit their temporary pumpkin patch to make donations, which over the years have added up to more than $20,000.
“Last year was our biggest year,” Amy said, adding proceeds topped $8,400, with every penny going to the nonprofit. “It was, I think, the perfect storm. The day before Halloween was a Friday. Halloween was a Saturday. Everybody wanted to get out because of COVID. And it was crazy for two days.”
The week or so prior to the display involved gutting and carving 394 pumpkins, followed by putting them in place and inserting two or three tea candles in each to help guarantee a sustained glow.
For 2021, 402 pumpkins arrived to begin the process.
“We empty 60 a day and then carve at least 60 a day,” Amy said a few days later. “You would think that you could gut them all and then start carving from there, but if you do that, the chances of you losing more are greater.”
She has about 15 people assisting, including friends Tammy Engel and Brenda Payseure, who referred to themselves as “gutters” as they scooped out seeds and other innards. With regard to how long they’ve been helping, each gave the same reply.
“I don’t know,” the both said.” A lot.”
The whole well-oiled machine, in Amy’s words, depends on lots of largesse, especially when it comes to the main attraction.
“My pumpkins are donated by one man, but I’m not allowed to say who he is, because he wants to remain anonymous,” Amy said. “He is my Pumpkin Angel, and he knows who he is.”
Another donor provides all of those tea candles, and still more folks contribute food and beverages to help keep everything going.
The Reuschlings actually started displaying pumpkins back in the 1990s, when their daughters Mia and Kelly were young, and the third, Maddie, hadn’t been born yet. Perhaps 10 decorated the yard the first year.
That’s a far cry from what the Pumpkin Posse, the collective name for all involved, is capable of these days. And their being able to tackle their tasks in quantity is attributable to a person with a heart of orange, if you will:
“Without my Pumpkin Angel,” Amy acknowledged, “I’m nothing.”
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/Pumpkin-Posse-275138729995858.