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Every fall, Marblehead turns orange. From the Humphrey Street lawn of Clifton Lutheran Church to a side yard on Mound Street to the gardens of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion, pumpkins bring neighbors together for fun, fundraising and tradition.
Clifton’s pumpkin patch
For nearly two decades, the front lawn of Clifton Lutheran Church has turned into a sea of orange each fall. Families driving down Humphrey Street watch the rows of pumpkins multiply, a signal that autumn has arrived.
On Sept. 20, volunteers from Scout Troop 79, Swampscott High School and church families unloaded more than 8,000 pumpkins and gourds shipped from New Mexico. The unloading itself has become a ritual, with parents, teenagers and young children forming a line to pass pumpkins from the truck to the grass.
The church’s pumpkin patch is part of a national program called Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers, which partners with Navajo farmers and workers in New Mexico. Harry Descheene, the company’s human resources director, is Navajo and has worked with the group for 22 years. He said unemployment on the Navajo Reservation is 42% and the $1.3 million in seasonal wages makes “a significant difference in the quality of the lives of my people.”
Descheene wrote in a letter that the company provides dorms, kitchens, safety training and recreation facilities for workers, along with transportation to and from the fields and back to their communities when the season ends. “Opportunities like this are very scarce on our reservations,” he wrote in a letter to churches and partners.
Pastor Jim Bixby told parishioners the pumpkins are more than a crop. “The pumpkins give our church family and community a place to rally, an identity and an invitation to belong,” he said.
The patch is open daily through Oct. 31, with proceeds supporting both the Navajo community and local programs. On Sept. 28, Clifton hosted its annual Fall Fest with raffles, games, face painting, food and live music. Proceeds went to Mission of Hope International in Haiti, which provides schooling, health care, housing and an orphanage.
Zisson’s giant gourds
On Mound Street, longtime grower Jim Zisson has raised giant pumpkins for 20 years. In 2024, he began a guessing-game fundraiser for the Marblehead Food Pantry. Members of the community donate to submit their best estimate of the pumpkin’s weight, with the closest guess winning half the jackpot and the other half going to the pantry.
After a knee injury in June, his wife Laura tended the vines and cut this year’s pumpkin free last weekend.
“She did everything,” he told the Independnent. “She didn’t want to let it go.”
The pair of gourds weigh between 300 and 400 pounds apiece, smaller than last year’s 449-pound “Pat.”
Last year’s contest drew 116 entries for a $580 jackpot. Winner Matt Temme, a Marblehead High graduate now in North Carolina, donated his share to hurricane relief. The other half went to pantry director Janet Parker.
Neighbors often stop by the Zisson yard to measure the giant pumpkins with their eyes and swap guesses about the weight. Even with this year’s challenges, the family kept the patch alive, and Jim said he plans to resume the weighing contest in 2025.
Downtown celebrations
On Oct. 30, the Marblehead Museum and Marblehead Family Fund will host a pumpkin illumination from 4 to 6:30 p.m. in the Lee Mansion gardens. That evening, the Chamber of Commerce will hold trick-or-treating from 4 to 6 p.m. along Washington, Pleasant and Atlantic streets with Washington closed from Pleasant to Rockaway.
Families can cap the night at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church where the Halloween Spooktacular will run from 4 to 7 p.m. with crafts, games, movies, food, music and a rest space for parents.
