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Weather turns Mundelein Pumpkin Drop into pumpkin drop-off

Lousy weather Sunday forced the Mundelein Park District to call off its annual Pumpkin Drop that features a trebuchet catapulting old pumpkins across the sky, but hundreds still showed up Sunday at Community Park for the event's second purpose: the environmentally friendly disposal of the big orange fruit.

The park district, Washington Early Learning Center and the village of Mundelein teamed to provide a large-scale, pumpkin only composting event as part of the popular Pumpkin Drop. A dumpster was set up at the park's sled hill as carloads of families dropped off their pumpkins, but often not before children took the opportunity to roll their pumpkins down the hill.

"We are going to be collecting pumpkins and taking them out to Midwest Organic, and they are going to be processing and composting there," composting specialist Vytas Pabedinskas said. "We are having a great turnout and it has been pretty impressive."

Pabedinskas educated participants on the science behind composting and the benefits of keeping pumpkins from ending up in landfills.

"We didn't want to just put them in the landfills because we know it creates problems," Heath Ferry of Vernon Hills said after dropping off more than 40 pumpkins. "Composting is important to us because we garden as well."

  Michael Pacella, 8, of Mundelein is chased by the pumpkin that he started rolling down the sled hill at the Mundelein Community Center on Sunday. The traditional pumpkin roll and pumpkin catapult were canceled due to weather but kids took them up the sled hill on their own. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  Washington Early Learning Center teacher Lauren Andrick of Vernon Hills throws a pumpkin in the collection bin at the Mundelein Community Center on Sunday. The traditional pumpkin roll and pumpkin catapult were canceled due to weather. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
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