SKOWHEGAN — Kindergarten students at North Elementary School were busy Thursday getting ready for their Harvest Homecoming open house by carving a scary face on the surface of a 400-pound pumpkin.
Retired art teacher and “just for fun” clay worker and pumpkin carver Moe Auger, of Alfred, sat on the floor surrounded by small children and pumpkin slices Thursday, showing the students how to use tools and put a face on what began as a smooth surface just in time for Halloween.
“We’re carving this giant pumpkin. This is an Atlantic Giant,” Auger said. “What we’re doing is having the kids help me carve this up. This morning they showed me a picture of what they wanted. They made some faces, and it kind of looks like most of the kids here, which is pretty scary.”
The features first were drawn on the massive, ribbed surface of the pumpkin. Then — very slowly — a face emerged, much to the students’ delight.
Anna Lucia Cardenas and Gauge McIntyre said they liked doing it, but that it was rather messy.
“The pumpkin was gross and squishy,” Anna said.
Auger explained that they were cutting into the pumpkin but not cutting through it.
“The idea is to let the pumpkin light up,” he said. “So when we put a light bulb in it, the whole thing will glow. If you cut all the way through it, the light shines through, but what we want is for the light to come through just the skin.”
Bronwyn Smart, school coordinator for the Healthy Kids Program, said Thursday’s pumpkin carving event was sponsored through a grant from New Balance Athletic Shoes. Every child got to work on the pumpkin.
“We’re going to light this thing up tonight,” Auger told one of the classes. “It’s going to look pretty, pretty cool.”
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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