Hundreds buy pumpkins at festival in South Elgin

Pumpkins sold for $2 to $5, depending on size, Saturday at SEBA Park in South Elgin during the annual Pumpkin Patch festival.

Other highlights of the festival included a haystack built for children to climb, a petting zoo, Touch a Truck, trolley rides and pony rides. A food truck was on hand. Warm apple cider and apple cider doughnuts were for sale, as were numbered raffle tickets for an event called the Pumpkin Plunge.

"We sell little gourds and we number them and float them down the river as a race, and then we do first, second and last places and they get some money for that," said Shane Hamilton, superintendent of South Elgin Parks and Recreation, in advance of the event. The raffle raises money for FUNdation, which aids programs in South Elgin.