Town Square Turns McCarren into a Pumpkin Patch

Fresh apple cider, sweet treats, plump little pumpkins and an unseasonably warm October day proved to be a recipe for success at Town Square’s second annual Pumpkin Day festival at McCarren Park on Saturday afternoon.

Pumpkin Day, as its name suggests, is a celebration of all things pumpkin, offering neighborhood children a chance to decorate a pumpkin while listening to the musical stylings of the Grand Street Community Band, who performed two live sets at the event. Throughout the afternoon, hundreds of babies, toddlers, parents and patrons of the neighboring Green Market crawled, waddled and wandered through the pumpkin patch, enjoying the party.

“We are amazed and humbled by what we have been able to accomplish with our limited resources,” said Susan Anderson, the Chair of Town Square, a volunteer-run civic organization dedicated to neighborhood development. “As an organization, we try to develop programs and events – gathering points – to bring people together, as a community. And we are so happy with how Pumpkin Day turned out.”

In a display of the Town Square spirit of volunteerism, a young visitor from Queens, Yarilys Perez, and Brooklyn Prep high schoolers, Shatobia Gadson, Karisha DelRosario, and Dulce Fernandez, donated their time and efforts to help make the day so successful.

The idea for Pumpkin Day came to Town Square from Katie Naplatarski, a member of Park MOMS, a fellow Greenpoint/Williamsburg-based community group last year, when she pitched the idea to Anderson. Like this year’s Pumpkin Day, last year’s celebration was hugely successful, though Town Square underestimated the event’s popularity and quickly ran out of pumpkins. This year, to protect against a shortage, Town Square purchased 400 pumpkins, which was barely enough to cover the community demand. Pumpkins were distributed at no charge ($5 donations were accepted from many of the attendees) and everyone received pumpkins.

The pumpkins for this year’s Pumpkin Day were purchased at discounts from Red Apple Orchard Farms and Natural Garden, a local greengrocer on Manhattan Avenue. In addition, Dunkin Donuts, Angel Bakery, Peter Pan Bakery and Starbucks made donations to Town Square, who provided the pumpkin decorating bags filled with arts and crafts activities. Coloring books and crayons were generously donated by Nick Stefanizzi of Boro Recycling.

Though pumpkins were the obvious focus of the event, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum sponsored an arts & crafts booth featuring Day of the Dead mask-making and a meet-and-greet with Merlin, the Museum’s resident (and kid-friendly) Dumeril Boa Constrictor.

“We wanted to make Day of the Dead masks as a way for kids to understand that skeletons don’t have to be scary,” explained Rebecca Ramirez, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. “We love working with Town Square and we love working in Greenpoint because we like having a presence in areas with new immigrant families, where maybe they don’t know about us and all we have to offer. Events like this are great.”

Similarly, the Grand Street Community Band, who performed at the event, emphasized their excitement about having a solid and public presence in the neighborhood, and the power of music to unite and enrich not only communities, but individuals within communities.

“As a community band, it’s so important to play in public places,” said Sarah Ricard, who doubles as one of the band’s clarinetists, as well as its Outreach Coordinator. “Playing events like this gives us an opportunity to give music back to those who can’t afford to pay to see it. In such a fragmented community like Greenpoint/Williamsburg, it’s nice to have music as a unifying factor, and to play outdoor events like this.”

David Seidner, another clarinetist for the band, as well as the Band Director at John Ericsson MS126 at the Grand Street Campus, agreed.

“Community bands are fun,” he said. “They gather people together, from junior high school all the way up to octogenarians, to play and to watch. Music just represents all the most wonderful things in life.”

Between the band, the booths, the sunshine and, of course, the pumpkins, both children and their parents were elated.

“Town Square is so inspiring. I mean, this is my first time to the pumpkin patch,” said Greenpoint resident and Open Space Alliance Board Member Adam Perlmutter, smiling down at his infant son, resting comfortably in his stroller. “And I think it’s all just great.”