GENEVA – Pumpkins For A Cure will hold its seventh annual pumpkin drive 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Oct. 1-2 at the Kane County Courthouse, 100 S. Third St., Geneva.
Money raised will benefit the The Zellmer Childhood Disease Foundation, which supports the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fund research for a cure for the nearly 21 million Americans who have diabetes.
All money donated is tax deductible.
No prices are associated with any of the pumpkins or other farm goods – gourds, bales of hay and Indian corn.
Event organizers ask that people donate what they think the items are worth.
Children’s activities offered are raffles, a craft table, face painting and free giveaways, Jeanie B and The Jelly Beans family music and story time featuring award-winning teacher Diane Clark.
Other activities offered are master gardener Debbie Notaro’s fall decorating and gardening tips, a haunted hay ride featuring Donna Latham, horse carriage rides and visits to Third Street merchants, professional pumpkin carver Marc Solomon, the Jesse White Tumblers and author Margery Cuyer will read from and give away an autographed hardcover edition of her new book “Skeleton Hiccups.”
Also featured is Taste For A Cure, a competition among Fox Valley restaurants that have submitted a pumpkin-based dessert of their own creation for judging by a professional panel and public tasters.
Entrants will create one full-size serving for each of the five judges and 500 bite-sized samples for the public tasters.
The fundraiser began when Mary and Paul Zellmer’s son, Jim, was diagnosed with Type I diabetes in the fall of 2004 when he was 6.
The next fall, the Blackberry Township family began Pumpkins for a Cure.
The first year, they sold pumpkins and gourds in their Mill Creek front yard in 2004 and raised more than $6,000.
Jim and his brother have started the James and Joseph Zellmer Scholarship Fund to help pay for children with diabetes to go to camp.
If you go
Pumpkins For A Cure will hold its seventh annual pumpkin drive 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 1 and Sunday, Oct. 2 at the Kane County Courthouse, 100 S. Third St., Geneva.Pumpkins For A Cure will hold its seventh annual pumpkin drive 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 at the Kane County Courthouse, 100 S. Third St., Geneva.
