A Chunkin Tradition

Every year for the past 7 years, minus one for Covid, we as a family and a few others, have traveled to Pennsylvania for a Punkin Chunkin fall festival. It all started as a cub scout project, involving a group of young scouts and their dads, building a trebuchet over a summer, and needing a place to set it up and launch pumpkins. Originally planning to travel to New Hampshire to a festival up there until it was cancelled, we found our current location in Howard, PA. The event we attend is solely designed as a fundraiser for the local, Howard fire department. There is no competition, just a dozen different “machines”, all a variation of a catapult, trebuchet, or air cannon, launching pumpkins into a lake for entertainment, the pumpkins themselves all being sponsored by local businesses. The event draws thousands of people and its location is incredibly beautiful, a ridge beyond the lake drenched in full autumn splendor, crisp cool air, and wonderful people to talk to.

As the years have gone by, the original group that built our trebuchet, named “Velveeta’s Revenge” due to its color, has dwindled to our family and one other friend who helped design our machine. We still pack everything up, drive it all 5 hours away, set it up, launch pumpkins all day Saturday, and return on Sunday, wiped and exhausted, but full of new memories and stories to tell. There are people who show up every year and stop by to chat, grateful that we have once again made the trek to help support their fire department. There are new comers every year who are fascinated by the different machines and love chatting about the physics behind them or just the story about how they got built. And the wide range of people this festival draws is spectacular as well. I’ve had the opportunity to chat with people ranging from a family with a freshman at Penn State studying mechanical engineering to a gentleman who returns year after year, missing his two front teeth but happy as can be and always willing to talk for hours. Then there are the other teams with their machines, trading secrets and ideas for improvement, the only thing fueling our passion a desire to see pumpkins launched with medieval inspired siege machines.

So with another year in the books, and plans for a new machine well under way, we are already looking ahead to next year, saving the date in our calendars, and ensuring we don’t book that weekend with some other mundane event. This one holds a special place for us, the people always warm and welcoming, and for the most part, incredible weather. This year we had an intense squall blow throw the day before the festival with close to 60 mile per hour winds and pelting rain, but it was short lived and at the end of the day, it was only rain and we all dried out. With the winter months ahead of us now, we will hopefully commence work on our new machine, but if not, at least we have our old one, reliable and sturdy, although it could definitely use a fresh coat of paint this year. Check it out below, and if your near Howard, PA next year around the third weekend of the month, come check us out, we will be there once again, camping by the lake and launching pumpkins.