Thursday, 17 September, 2009 3:07
by Tarah
St. Luke’s United Methodist Church Annual Pumpkin Patch
6012 Youree Drive, Shreveport
October 11 – October 31, 2009
Info contact: 318-838-3613
Shreveport-Bossier, La. - St. Luke's has provided the community with the Pumpkin Patch since 1990. We will open Sunday, October 11th, 2009 after we unload about 3,000 pumpkins by hand from the truck and will remain open till October 31st or until we sell out of Pumpkins from 9:00am – 7:00pm.
Our Pumpkins, Gourds and specialty corn items are grown on a Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico. Our farmers supply over 800 Pumpkin Patches throughout 39 states and help 25 denominations raise money for missions.
We have families that come out each year and some of the parents tell us that they came to the patch when they were growing-up. We encourage families to bring cameras and spend as much time as they want taking pictures and letting the children discover pumpkins. Last year we had a Sunday afternoon concert in the Patch and plan to do it again this year…..date TBD. We put out signs on Youree Drive about 2 or 3 weeks prior to the patch opening to let our neighbors know when we will get our pumpkins. We also post patch events on the electronic bill board.
In the past eighteen years, the Pumpkin Patch has donated over $155,000 to missions. The Pumpkin Patch is a mission project for St Luke’s and 100% of the profit is given to local missions. Last year we were able to donate $4,480 to local missions. Just a sample of the recipients of donations have been; Cavanaugh Adolescent Center, Christian Services, LA Methodist Children's Home, Gingerbread House, Habitat for Humanity, Oakwood home for women, Providence House, Sager – Brown UMCOR, Shreveport/Bossier Community Renewals, Samaritan Counseling Center, STEP-UP, Shreveport Rescue Mission, YMCA Family Violence Center, Week-end of the Cross.
Not only do we sell pumpkins but we sell Pumpkin Cookbooks, tee shirts, hay, and bottled water. This year we are looking at also selling cookies and maybe popcorn to cover our over head such as renting the tent and supplies needed to run the patch for 3 weeks.
Dates for the school children to visit the Pumpkin Patch are Monday 19th -Friday23rd. Due to the number of visitors we have, we request that school groups make reservations to visit the patch during these dates. We plan to see 2,250 school children this year. The children will spend one hour with us as we have Story time/Pumpkin discovery and Pumpkin Patch time. Because of the level of the entertainment we will only be able to schedule children in 4 year old preschool and Kindergarten. We ask that each child bring .75 to purchase a small pumpkin and that each teacher bring plenty of parents to help watch the children.
Reservations can be made on out website at www.stlukesshreveport.org.