In 2012 Pumpkins For A Cure has become Pumpkins For a Cure Festival.  This year the Festival will feature our pumpkin patch and mum garden, but we added so much more.  We will not only have jack-o-lanterns, but will feature specialty pumpkins such as Cinderella’s, Lunch Lady’s, 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 we 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.

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 we raise will be used.  This year we will give two research grants one at the University of Chicago Kovler Diabetes Center.  We will also give a second grant this year 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.    We are so grateful, and thankful for the support we’ve  receive over the past eight years.