The Trinity Church youth group has risen to the Great Pumpkin Challenge. The group will take on the role of hosting the annual fundraiser and pumpkin display on the church's grounds, at 36 Main Street, this year.greatpumpkinchallenge.org, will also remain the same. Residents are still being challenged to carve a pumpkin and drop it off with a suggested donation of $5. Money raised by the effort will continue to support the Hole In The Wall Gang Camp. While times are still being determined, drop-off dates for pumpkins will be after school on Friday, October 28, then Saturday, October 29, and Sunday, October 30. Halloween is Monday, October 31.

The Great Pumpkin Challenge was created by Newtown High School 2016 graduate Mackenzie Page when she was an eighth grade student at Newtown Middle School. Mackenzie was inspired to support a family friend, Zoe McMorran, who was diagnosed with brain cancer.

That year, 2011, Mackenzie challenged residents to carve a pumpkin, drop it off to display at her family's Main Street home before Halloween, and offer a suggested donation of $5. Mackenzie raised money both for the American Cancer Society and for Zoe's family in 2011. Since then, money has been raised for Paul Newman's Hole In The Wall Gang Camp, a summer camp and center serving children and families coping with cancer and other serious illnesses.

The 2015 Great Pumpkin Challenge was a record year, with 228 pumpkins dropped off for display and donations continuing to be collected through November, when Mackenzie announced more than $75,000 had been collected for the cause. But with college looming while carved pumpkins were collected for the display last Halloween,  Mackenzie could not say whether The Great Pumpkin Challenge would continue in 2016.

That has changed.

"I'm really, really excited," Mackenzie said on Monday, August 22, just days before she was set to start her first semester at Babson College in Massachusetts.

Trinity Church Children and Youth Minister Sue Vogelman said at a recent youth group meeting that trick-or-treating, Halloween, and The Great Pumpkin challenge were discussed. The group has always supported the challenge by bringing pumpkins and giving donations, Ms Vogelman said. At the meeting, the group remembered reading articles that said the 2015 effort might have been the last for the challenge, and they decided to accept the larger challenge of hosting the yearly luminarias display and fundraiser. They contacted Mackenzie.

On Thursday, August 18, Mackenzie met with the youth group and solidified the transition.

"I walked in feeling good, and I walked out feeling great," said Mackenzie.

Everything will remain the same, except for the location, according to both Mackenzie and Ms Vogelman.

The challenge's website,

"It's ideal really, because we get so many people right there at the church," said Ms Vogelman, speaking to the volume of trick-or-treating foot traffic on Main Street for Halloween each year.

The youth group at Trinity will lead the challenge, Ms Vogelman said, and plans are being hatched to wear costumes and hand out candy the night of Halloween, while The Great Pumpkin Challenge is on display in its full illuminated glory.

"We're not changing anything," said Ms Vogelman. "We are just trying to keep it going for her."

Mackenzie said she will be keeping on eye on the challenge from college.

"I think it will be really good. I'm excited. I can't wait, honestly," Mackenzie said.

Ms Vogelman said the pumpkins dropped off at Trinity this year will be put on display on scaffolding, like the displays each year since 2011 at the Page family home.

"[2015] was not the last year. We're going to keep it going," Ms Vogelman said.