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WHAT: Pumpkin Walk at Twilight
WHEN: 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Wick Recreation Area, 1861 McCollum Road, Youngstown
HOW MUCH: Admission is free. For more information, go to millcreekmetroparks.org or call 330-740-7107.
Attendees will stroll a different location for Sunday's Pumpkin Walk at Twilight.
The annual event, which traditionally draws large crowds to Mill Creek MetroParks' Fellows Riverside Gardens, will move to the Wick Recreation Area this year.
Jaime Yohman, community engagement director for the park system, said, "We decided last year, with the construction going on with the Youngtown City sewer project blocking down a lot of the roads around Fellows Riverside Gardens, that it probably wouldn’t be of the best interest for the public and for us to have pumpkin walk at the gardens due to traffic flow and parking issues due to that construction closure.
"We decided that Wick Recreation Area was one of the best locations to have it at. It’s still in that same district, the same neighborhood as the gardens is, and it allows a lot more parking availability and a lot of space to make the event more enjoyable."
Attendees can walk the grounds at Wick, which will be decorated with carved and illuminated pumpkins. The public also is invited to help make the event a reality. A carving session runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at Wick Recreation Area. Pumpkins and carving tools will be available, although participants are welcome to bring their own tools. Stencils will be available for volunteers to use, Yohman said, but they also can rely upon their imaginations.
There is no charge to participants, but the pumpkins they carve stay at the metroparks. They can't be taken home.
New events also are planned at the new location.
"We’re having a fun educational-based GLOW party out at the Bresko Pavilion, and then also a costume contest that starts at 6 o’clock," Yohman said. "We’re urging children to come dressed up (in non-scary costumes) and enter the costume contest."
Contest categories include best makeup, most creative, cutest, funniest and best overall. Refreshments will be available for purchase from various food vendors, and exclusive Mill Creek MetroParks event merchandise will be for sale.
"We wanted to give the public something extra since it is a new location and historically it hasn’t been there," Yohman said. "We wanted to do something to make it a fun time."