Student clubs and departments entered their creative pumpkins in the third annual Amarillo College SECC Pumpkin Carving Contest in October.
Students, faculty members and staff members voted on their favorite pumpkin by putting money in the coin jar adjacent to the pumpkin or wrote a bid down as part of the silent auction.
The pumpkin with the most votes got to choose what charity the funds benefitted.
The winning pumpkin was the Edgar Allan Poe pumpkin created by the English honors society, Sigma Kappa Delta.
SKD chose to donate the more than $400 in funds to the Amarillo Area Adult Literacy Council through the State Employee Charitable Campaign. The council teaches illiterate adults basic reading, writing and GED skills.
Sigma Kappa Delta’s Edgar Allan Poempkin won first place.
State colleges and employee groups with SECC committees across Texas donate to the campaign.
“They all do different things on their campuses or at their businesses to raise money for charity every year,” said Heather Atchley, student life director.
The contest drew 20 entries with artwork ranging from classic carved pumpkins to pumpkins being used as a canvas for painting.
One pumpkin took on the face of Jack Skellington from the motion picture The Nightmare Before Christmas.
A humorous entry was created by carving a large pumpkin to look like it was eating smaller pumpkins.
“The math pumpkin comes in second for me,” said Rebecca Archer, an SECC committee member.
The entry made use of several pumpkins spelling out the phrase, “I ate some Pumpkin Pie,” except that the phrase was spelled out with math symbols.
“We never have the same pumpkin twice,” Archer said.
“It’s always so creative.”
Students joined in the voting and bidding.
“I thought that some of them were really creative,” said Otto Beyer, a general studies major.
“A lot of people put in a lot of work on them, and some of them lit up really great.
“Other people didn’t even carve; they just used them in more creative ways.”
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