Clark County Cooperative Extension agents were contacted by a local elementary school to ask if there was any pumpkin programming that could be provided for their students. In the past, Strode Station Elementary students attend nearby pumpkin patches to learn about pumpkins during the fall season. The teachers found such value in the agricultural and nutrition education experience that they were hoping Extension could fill that void. Clark County FCS and 4-H agents developed a Pumpkin Days program for Strode Station in response and were able to offer the programming to another school, Shearer Elementary, after a local producer offered to donate over 600 pumpkins for use with the programming.

Pumpkin Day occurred the last week of October over two days and programming included 5 stations: Pumpkin nutrition, Pumpkin life cycle, pumpkin parts/dissection, pumpkin ring toss, and pumpkin decorating. Between both schools, 629 students participated in these stations and learned all about how to grow pumpkins, the parts of the pumpkin, the nutrition and uses for pumpkins, as well as had some fun playing games with pumpkins. All the student were offered pumpkin muffins and roasted pumpkin seeds to sample, planting pumpkin seeds they dug out of the insides of a dissected pumpkin, and were able to take home a decorated pumpkin.

The students and teachers seemed to enjoy the stations. Many teachers came up to the Extension staff stating that this was a wonderful program for their students to have, especially during the pandemic where this type of programming has been limited. Some students had never tried any pumpkin flavored foods and had never carved a pumpkin, so this programming allowed new experiences for students. A brief survey was sent to school administrators as a follow up. This questionnaire indicated that over 90% of the participants learned something new as a result of the program.