Newtown Middle School Art Enrichment students worked on Monday, October 12, to paint pumpkins for the set for Saturday, October 17, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.6th Annual Great Pumpkin Races, a Newtown Lions Club event

The pumpkins were donated and brought to the school by the Lions Club, and will be put on display during the event.

NMS art teachers Leigh Anne Coles and Kristen Ciarletto oversaw the students working after school to paint the pumpkins.

As the painting began, students planned to paint a minion from the the Despicable Me and Minions movies, a collage of Halloween-inspired images, bones, and a spider web with spiders, candy corn, and monsters on their pumpkins.

According to Ms Coles and Ms Ciarletto, more students will also work to paint the pumpkins on Friday, October 16.

The fifth annual Great Pumpkin Race will run from 10 am until 2 pm behind Edmond Town Hall. There is a $5 charge for each competition entered. Spectators are welcome, free of charge, according to the club.

The first event of the day will be the pumpkin decorating contest. Categories are Most Beautiful, Scariest, and Funniest, and pumpkins will be judged in age categories (8 and under, 9-12, and 13-18).

The pumpkins painted by NMS students will not be entered into the pumpkin painting contest, according to the art teachers.

Following the pumpkin judging will be the pumpkin race itself. Local groups, organizations and businesses also participate in the event, which is a fundraiser for the local Lions Club.