A giant Jack-o-lantern lit up Oliver Street this Halloween.
Following a trip to Vic West where so her older brother could zoom around the skate park, five-year-old Hannah Dill scratched her name on contest entry for a giant pumpkin at the Save-On-Foods store.
Grandpa Tim Weckand helped her fill out the form. And she won. Getting the 232-pound pumpkin home was easier than one might think, but still involved a palette.
READ ALSO: Pumpkin patch proposal takes engagement to new heights
“When we won, we called [Weckand], who has a truck,” said Hannah’s dad, Ryan Dill.
“It took three of the store employees to put it in the truck,” Weckand said.
Then came the conundrum of what to do with the pumpkin.
“We’ve been here for a few years and we knew Bob [Strachan] from a few houses down is great at [carving] pumpkins so we thought we’d ask,” Dill said. “I didn’t want to butcher this. If it was me carving it, it would have triangle eyes and mouth.”
READ MORE: 100-pound pumpkin stolen a second time from B.C. business
Strachan is known for having two dozen highly detailed Jack-o-lanterns in his yard each Halloween. He humbly cleared his day and spent seven hours carving a face that’s not too spooky, but not too friendly, just as Hannah hoped.
The kindergarten student from Margaret Jenkins, in fact, would likely fit inside the pumpkin though she didn’t find the idea particularly inviting and opted to decline.
Do you have a story tip? Email: vnc.editorial@blackpress.ca.
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.
