Editor’s note: Jonathan Stapleton’s name was originally misspelled in this column, which has been updated to include the correct spelling at 1:44 p.m. Oct. 8.
The 15th annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival took place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29 at Stowe Events Field.
Founder Dave Jordan organizes the festival to raise money for the Clarina Howard Nichols Center, which works to prevent domestic violence.
“This is their biggest fundraising day of the year; last year we raised $30,000,” said Sean Morrisey, announcer for the trebuchet competition for the past three years.
The $10 entry fee to see the pumpkin throwing competition is a donation to the center, according to Morrissey.
It’s also a non-alcoholic event, making it a wholesome and fun way to participate in the community.
“There’s a chili-cook-off, there’s a volleyball tournament, there’s the craft fair and, of course, the pumpkin chucking,” Morrissey said.
Dave Jordan came up to Morrissey in the middle of our interview to discuss the giant robot on the side of the field. The robot was supposed to launch a pumpkin but was malfunctioning, said Morrissey.
The pumpkin launching competition started at 12:30 p.m., according to the website.
Chants of “what the chuck” rang through the crowd as the trebuchet teams prepared their designs for launching.
Behind the active trebuchet, a pair of volunteers held up a tarp in case the pumpkin misfired backward into the crowd. Volunteers in the field ran to the falling point of each pumpkin to measure the distance.
“Note that I also like watching people run after the pumpkins … it’s funny,” junior Sarah Andrews said.
The first round of launching was decidedly won by Jonathan Stapleton with a 729-foot throw.
He and his son were last year’s winners for the middleweight and heavyweight division, according to the results.
When he’s not competing in the pumpkin launching, Stapleton is a high school teacher for physics and robotics in Essex, Vt.
“I saw a flyer describing this and thought, ‘oh that sounds fun’ […] anytime there’s some sort of engineering challenge, I like to do it,” he said.
He participates with his son, Orion, and in the past his daughter has competed as well.
“It combines the arm and the counterweight so you can have a lot of potential energy … [that] goes into throwing the pumpkin,” Stapleton said.
Stapleton’s first chuck went impressively far but veered slightly right and towards the crowd.
“I’m just going to try to aim left,” Stapleton said, laughing.
Steve McCann and his son, Steven McCann, are another father-son duo who participate in the competition. They’ve traveled from West Paris, Maine to show off their designs every year since 2016.
“It’s fun seeing the people. It’s a year in between but it’s just like you saw them yesterday,” Steve McCann said.
The second round of pumpkin launching ended with gasps from the crowd as Stapleton’s launch sent his pumpkin 828 feet.
Jonathan Stapleton ended up winning the heavyweight division with what the website claims to be a world-record trebuchet launch for a five-pound pumpkin.
The middleweight open division was tied between Jonathan and Orion Stapleton and Zai Gluck. Both teams launched their pumpkins 606 feet. Steve McCann placed second.
The lightweight open was won by Roger DuHamel, with his trebuchet named “Old Man’s Bucket List.”
Junior Sara Varano found the pumpkin chucking to be the highlight of the festival.
“It’s really cool to see all the catapults and you don’t know how far the pumpkin is going to go until you are watching it. So it was very interesting and I didn’t know what to expect,” Varano said.
