Vernon Hills Park District hosts its annual Pumpkin Launch

The Vernon Hills Park District continued a tradition of helping the community get rid of old pumpkins after Halloween on Saturday.

The annual Pumpkin Launch was held at the Century Park North sled hill with pumpkins rolled, smashed and launched.

The event was limited to the first 50 participants who signed up paying a nominal fee of $2 to launch.

Various other family-oriented pumpkin activities were held, with prizes awarded to children and adults.

The event was born in 2010, when a couple Vernon Hills Park District employees said they had attended a similar event hosted by the Mundelein Park & Recreation District and suggested Vernon Hills host its own.

Park officials approached the Vernon Hills High School science department to see if anyone was interested in designing a trebuchet to use. Teacher Jason Rush was receptive to the idea and converted his garage into a workshop, park officials said. Rush and his father built the trebuchet that has been used for the event ever since.

Officials said Rush enlists some of his physics students to set up and operate the trebuchet. The launch site becomes an extension of his classroom, allowing the students to learn experientially by physically being involved in the launching of each pumpkin.

After the event, participants pick up the pumpkin pieces and load them into a truck that is driven out to Midwest Organics, a composting facility in McHenry, park officials said.