Final hurrah: Bethel Park ‘Pumpkin Posse’ carving jack-o-lanterns one last Halloween
BETHEL PARK – What began as a Halloween tradition of carving pumpkins with her children blossomed into a neighborhood event, but Amy Reuschling is ready to disband the Pumpkin Posse after this October.
Each year Reuschling and a dozen relatives and friends – the aforementioned “Pumpkin Posse” – gather in her Bethel Park home about a week ahead of Halloween to laugh, drink and carve pumpkins.
A lot of pumpkins.
“Yes, it’s my thing, and, yes, everyone calls me the pumpkin queen, but without them … It’s like they get off of work, they come here. They stay here until 10 o’clock at night, they go home, they go to sleep, they go back to work and they come back here. It’s like that week all you do is think pumpkins. It’s ridiculous.”
They aren’t making simple jack-o-lanterns, either. These pumpkins are more complex, with detailed images of fictional characters, celebrities and even re-creations of famous works of art.
The pumpkins are placed on display on Oct. 30 and 31 at Reuschling’s home on East View Road. The event has become so popular that Bethel Park police are on hand to control traffic.
Reuschling tracks the origin of the pumpkin display to the early 1990s, when her children were young. They operated on a smaller scale, but the community grew accustomed to what the family cooked up each Halloween.
“Then when they went to college, we stopped a year. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, why did you stop?’ They all missed it,” Reuschling said.
When they rebooted, Reuschling decided to use the pumpkin display to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. Reuschling herself was diagnosed with MS in 2000.
“I said if we’re going to do this in a big way, why don’t we try to see if we can collect money for a good cause?” Reuschling said.
During the two-day event, Reuschling collects money for the National MS Society. So far this year they have already raised more than $40,000. Reuschling says the most successful year actually came during the pandemic.
“I think everybody just needed to get out of the house. It was an outdoor activity,” Reuschling said. “Everybody was really respectful. It was lunacy out front. Absolute lunacy. And I think in those two days we raised like $82,100.”
However, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. A mass-pumpkin casualty last year was part of the reason Reuschling decided to stop after this year.
Last year they had about 300 pumpkins carved, and thought about 10 had rotted away.
“Then when we went out we realized that we lost a lot more than that. We lost probably 150 pumpkins that we already carved,” Reuschling said.
She blamed both the heat and their timing.
“It’s a combination of we’ve had some really warm Octobers, and we started carving too soon. Pumpkins, once you cut into them, have a shelf life.”
Part of the reason the Pumpkin Posse is able to raise so much money is that they get a good discount on pumpkins: 100% off.
An anonymous benefactor, who Reuschling refers to as her “pumpkin angel,” gives her as many pumpkins as she needs, for free, every year.
“He said, ‘I’ll give you 100 pumpkins or I’ll give you 1,000 pumpkins.’ And it’s all at no charge,” Reuschling said.
The pumpkin angel was disappointed to learn that Reuschling planned to hang up the carving tools when she contacted him for pumpkins this year, and told her someone should take up the mantle.
“He said, ‘This is like the best fundraiser I have ever seen in my life, and you guys are so great.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know who is going to want to take this over,'” Reuschling said. “It’s fun, but it’s not fun. It’s a lot of work.”
Without the stress of organizing the massive pumpkin-carving effort, Reuschling hopes she will be able to create new traditions with her still expanding family.
“My daughter is pregnant right now,” Reuschling said. “So we’ll have a grandchild, and I’ll be able to maybe go trick-or-treating with my grandchild.”