CUPunkin'Chuckin' a different type of fall fling
Fling a few pumpkins at more than 350 miles per hour, spit pumpkin seeds as far as you can and bring your soft jack-o'-lanterns to toss at a toilet or bathtub.
Add these events to soft ground conditions after lots of rain this month, and you've got one silly spectacle designed to raise money for the community's public schools.
It's the Champaign-Urbana Schools Foundation's first-ever CUPunkin'Chuckin' Challenge, and it's scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Olympian Drive and Prospect Avenue on Champaign's far north side.
The event is free and open to the public, said Gail Rost, executive director of the foundation.
"The concept is, 'we're making an impact,'" Rost said. And they'll certainly make one, as 25 companies launch pumpkins toward an MTD bus with the help of Acme Catapult, which is based in Allentown and owns a pumpkin launcher that can fling pumpkins 600 feet in the air and more than a few thousand feet away.
Acme's made up of a group of friends in central Illinois who originally built a catapult for a pumpkin chucking contest, according to www.acmecatapult.com. (Calls made to a representative of Acme were not returned Friday afternoon.)
"Since then, the catapult has grown into a tandem axle monster capable of hurling refrigerators and lawn tractors high into the air, or throwing a 10-pound pumpkin 2,000 feet," according to the Web site.
Acme's catapult has been featured on national TV, including on TLC, Jay Leno and a commercial for a Motorola cell phone, Rost said.
Rost calls the actual pumpkin chucking a "quasi-contest" because all the pumpkins will be launched from the same machine. The company with the pumpkin that lands closest to the bus will be declared the world champion, Rost said.
Next year, she's hoping amateurs will be able to compete with their own machines.
The bus as a target was questionable Friday, because the ground is so wet. But Rost procured a tractor to lug the bus to the Punkin' Chuckin' event. The windows have been removed, and the bus's next stop will be the recycling center, Rost said.
Participants can also spit seeds, and companies can enter an eight-minute pumpkin decorating contest, judged by local celebrities.
While admission is free, the foundation is selling T-shirts, raffle tickets and reusable shopping bags, Rost said.
"We're hoping people will chip in and help support the organization through those types of things," she said.
Those coming to the event, north of Meijer in Champaign, can park on Boardwalk, Rost said. It's the road that runs behind Meijer and intersects with Interstate Drive. Boardwalk has sidewalks, Rost said.
It will be hard to miss, she said, because they'll be launching pumpkins every nine minutes. Before each launch, a siren blares to warn bystanders.
"I suspect that people who have no clue what's going on will show," Rost said. "It is a spectacle. It just makes you laugh."
And prepare to have a good time, she said.
"It's just stupid, silly funny nonsense things to do," Rost said. "We all need something that doesn't mean anything, something entertaining."
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