In 2012, Pumpkins For A Cure Becomes a Full-Blown Festival

The Pumpkins for a Cure event in downtown Geneva has been growing every year, so why not call it what it is? The Pumpkins for a Cure Festival, which takes place Sept. 29 and 30, 2012, in downtown Geneva.

"This year, the festival will feature our pumpkin patch and mum garden, but we added so much more," Mary Agnes Zellmer said on the new Zellmer Childhood Disease Foundation website.

This year's festival will not only feature jack-o-lanterns but specialty pumpkins, such as Cinderellas, Lunch Ladies, Fairy Tales (dark green pumpkins), white pumpkins and a pumpkin that has never been grown in Illinois before: a pink pumpkin.

You’ll be able to see all these unusual and new varieties on the courthouse lawn. In the mum garden, organizers have added a variety of fall plants to help complete your fall garden.

"We will feature our late blooming hearty mums, but we will have cabbages, kale and a few surprises." Zellmer said. 

On our schedule of events we will feature Carol Steven’s Macaroni Soup, a petting zoo and pony rides, a Haunted Hay ride with stories from Donna Latham, FREE hot dogs from Fifth Third Bank, Professional pumpkin carver Marc Solomon, Apple Gift Card Raffle, Kid’s Raffle, face painting and Scarecrow on Stilts.

All of these events are a great reason to attend the Pumpkins For a Cure Festival, but a more important reason is how the money from the festival will be used to combat childhood diseases.

This year's proceeds will go to two research grants, one at the University of Chicago Kovler Diabetes Center and a second grant to the University of Illinois Chicago Pediatric Brain Disorders Clinic.

"Being able to fund a large research project couldn’t’ happen with support from the community," Zellmer said. "We are so grateful, and thankful for the support we’ve received over the past eight years."

SOURCE: ZCDF.org website

Editor's note: Geneva Patch is a media sponsor of Pumpkins for a Cure.