Lakes Region Scholarship Foundation sponsored Pumpkin Contest to Celebrate the Season.

LACONIA — The Second Annual Pumpkin Contest has come to a close. Lakes Region Scholarship Foundation Executive Director, Karen Switzer commented “We are so grateful to all who supported the Foundation with creative pumpkin figure displays, as well as those who donated prizes for our raffle.” She added, “There were so many wonderful entries this year, it was a difficult decision for the judges.

One of the most unique group of entries, again this year, were from the Huot Technical Center in Laconia. Ten different department groups created pumpkins relating to their fields of study and LRSF Executive Director, Karen Switzer, noted that they were “outstanding.”

The creations were reviewed by a set of three judges, made up of a member LRSF Board of Trustees as well as two guest judges. The Best Overall winner went to the Barros Family of Gilford for their entry, Pumpkin Village People, which is not only lit up at night, but includes a disco ball.

The winners in each category of the other categories were: Best Business: The Galleria Salon and Day Spa for their pumpkin bridal masquerade; Best Non-Profit: Lakes Region Community Services Staffworks Program for their fall is in the air at LRCS/We love our DSPs; Best School: Pleasant Street School for their Sesame Street/Pleasant Street pumpkin kids and the Best Family winner was: The Morin/Gagne family for The Fairy Godmother of Little Pumpkins.

In the special awards categories, the winners were: Cutest: Laconia Housing for The Golden Sunbird Pumpkin People, complete with Danny and Sandy in Grease Lighting; Best by a Child went to the Barry girls of Gilford for their Centipede People Eater; Most Unique: The Butler family for their Alien Invasion and the Scariest award went to Lachance’s Water Filtration in Tilton for their Harvest Season with its grim reaper pumpkin driving through a haunted pumpkin patch.

The Huot Technical Center, with their 10 entries fell into a special category of Honorable Mention. In addition to the overall winner for Huot, the following departments entered:

Huot Allied Health with Healthcare Hero; Auto Tech with their Pumpkin Mechanic; Building Construction built Bob the Builder; Business Education entered Mr. Cash Pumpkin; Law Enforcement students recreated a classic Norman Rockwell picture of a policeman and a young boy at the soda shop; the LNA/Nursing program showed that The Essence of Nursing is Caring; the Personal Finance class presented personal finance planning on “fire” with their Financial Independence Retire Early entry; Digital Arts created Darth Pumpkin with Joda Pumpkin and the Teacher Prep students created a bus load of pumpkin figure students filling most of the seats with independent pumpkin figures, complete with a pumpkin figure bus driver.

The overall winner for the Huot this year were the plumbing and heating students who created a scene of a pumpkin figure in a tub complete with a fully working shower held up by a skeleton. The LRSF judges reported that choosing a winner from all of these excellent entries was very difficult.

If anyone was not able to get out and see the pumpkin figures, pictures of all of the entries are on the Lakes Region Scholarship FACEBOOK page.”