Sponsored By:

New York Pumpkin Festival

Camp Sunshine’s New York Pumpkin Festival lights 5,000 pumpkins, and over 75,000 smiles!

It was a beautiful fall day at Camp Sunshine’s New York Pumpkin Festival on October 25th, and we were thrilled with the attendance, participation, and results. Despite on and off rain, over 75,000 people came out over the course of the crisp fall day, and the event raised tons of awareness and support for Camp Sunshine.

An army of volunteers, young and old from across the tri-state area, gutted, carved, crated, arranged and lit pumpkins throughout the day and into the evening, and were dispersed throughout the park. Adding to the spectacular display was a 30-foot-tall scaffolding tower filled with jack-o-lanterns and glow heart pumpkins.

Adding to the fun at the event was a carving challenge sponsored by Instinet. Participating in the carving challenge were teams from Instinet, a Camp Sunshine family team (sponsored by Camp Sunshine’s Psychosocial Director Nancy Cincotta and Medical Director Dr. Andrew Eichenfield), and a team from Manhattan Country School also sponsored by Nancy and Andy. The carving challenge was sponsored by Instinet, who matched all team fees and donations up to $10,000. In addition to these teams, the Fasciano family also contributed towards the Instinet match, along with the Nets and Forest City Ratner Companies.

Teams each started with 10 minutes of carving time, with some teams earning a few extra minutes for monies raised. The Instinet teams looked like they have been practicing for this event for months, with one of the teams handily taking home the victory and the coveted Instinet Carving Cup, carving 62 pumpkins in 15 minutes.

Throughout the day, food vendors served up some tasty treats to event attendees, including some delicious pumpkin spice smoothies from Camp Sunshine friends Tropical Smoothie Café who came all the way from Florida to support Camp Sunshine in this event, along with representatives from one of their Long Island locations.

At the end of the day, after all the pumpkins were carved, pumpkin spice smoothies were enjoyed, and fun was had, the pumpkins were blown out and then hauled away to be composted.

The S.L.E. Lupus Foundation and Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation, served as the lead sponsors of the event for the second year in a row. In addition to these foundations, we would also like to thank our friends at New York City Parks & Recreation for their fine and generous support, and the Camp Sunshine staff and volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this event a success. Thanks also to Village Candle, Instinet, Tropical Smoothie Café, The Nets, Forest City Ratner Companies, 98.7 Kiss and the New York Post, and all of our other sponsors for helping us make this event a success. For a complete list of sponsors, please visit our sponsors page.