Pumpkin Passion | Cranston Herald

By MATTHEW LAWRENCE, Beacon Media Contributor

You never know what to expect from the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Roger Williams Park Zoo, and this year’s installment — the 24th annual event — is no exception, with intricately carved depictions of everything and everybody from Dolly Parton to the spaceship from the 1979 movie “Alien.”

John Reckner has been carving pumpkins since 1988, when he created his first jack-o-lantern display as a fundraising event for schools in the small town of Oxford, Massachusetts, midway between Worcester and the Connecticut border. A postal worker by day, Reckner launched his company Passions for Pumpkins as a small family company. In 1999, the Library of Congress gave the event a Local Legacy award, and soon after Providence came calling, wanting a jack-o-lantern display of its own.

Passion for Pumpkins now produces three events each year: Roger Williams Park Zoo is only about an hour away from Oxford, but the other two sites are in Louisville, Kentucky, and Apple Valley, Minnesota. The pumpkins are carved in Oxford and then shipped in a box truck to the three zoos. Some are carved traditionally with knives, but many of them feature more complicated techniques like sanding. The pumpkins get their glow from about an inch of the pumpkins’ white pulp being hollowed out, Reckner told The Valley Breeze last year.

For six weeks — Sept. 26 to Nov. 2 — Roger Williams Park Zoo is illuminated with thousands of pumpkins arranged along the pumpkin trail. Each year the path has a different theme, but last year’s Trivia theme was so successful that organizers decided to run a second trivia edition. The display is divided into about fifteen themed sections, each accompanied by music based around that theme, whether it’s cars, bridges, dog breeds or movie spaceships.

Reckner laughs when asked if he has any favorite pumpkins in this year’s display.

“In 2012, we had a two-thousand-pound pumpkin to mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking. We floated that one in the pond. This year there’s another Titanic pumpkin but it’s totally different,” he said. “I also make sure Elvis is out there every year.”

Reckner normally sources pumpkins locally, but this year’s drought meant he had to go to Pennsylvania to get the pumpkins. “We went to the Amish,” he says, “because they irrigate their fields.”

“We learned a lot over the years,” he says. “At first, we used incandescent bulbs, which heated the pumpkins up to about 175 degrees. They didn’t last too long like that.”

Now they use LED bulbs, with the socket located on the outside of the pumpkin. Visitors will notice this the most on the pumpkins that line the bridges of the wetlands trail. The team also uses a lot of fans, which keep the pumpkins cool and helps to ward off hungry fruit flies. Still, it’s an ongoing process.

“All of the pumpkins get redone five or six times,” he says. “Some of the more intricate ones can take ten or twelve hours each.”

Reckner has a staff of eighteen carvers who create duplicates of all the pumpkins, which get replaced roughly once a week depending on the weather. The carvers have different styles and different backgrounds, which is evident by the different approaches taken by each carver in certain sections of the display, like the areas dedicated to dog breeds or countries of the world. Overall, he says it takes about 50 people to put on the Spectacular each fall.

“Every year I get calls from other zoos, and I have to turn them down. Zoos are always looking for fundraisers that will get people through the doors,” he said. According to the zoo website, proceeds from the Spectacular support their s ongoing animal care, education programs and conservation initiatives.

The ever-popular attraction saw a record 176,330 visitors last year, according to Vicki Scharfberg, the zoo’s Director of Marketing & PR. To prevent overcrowding, tickets are timed and sold only in advance online. The event happens rain or shine, but good dry fall weather helps. The pumpkins get more exciting as the sun sets and the sky gets darker, with smoke machines and purple lighting giving the pond a spooky effect. Right now, the sun sets at around 6:30 p.m. but in a few weeks it will be dark by the time the trail opens at 6 p.m.

“It’s a tradeoff,” Scharfberg says. “Warm weather is good for guests, but cold weather is better for the pumpkins.”

There are several special nights this year. Oct. 8 and 9 are Family Fun Nights, with costumed characters along the pumpkin trail from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 22 and 23 are Sensory Friendly nights from 5 to 6 p.m., when the pumpkins will be presented without music or special effects for visitors with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and sensory processing differences. Sunday, Nov. 2, is a 21+-only viewing. Because that’s the day that Daylight Savings Time ends, the sun will set at 4:38 p.m., more than an hour before the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular opens.