Community rallies to replace pumpkin kids' stolen earnings

Still stung after having their pumpkin patch destroyed by vicious vandals, young Mason and Brenna Gilchrist returned from their grandfather’s house Sunday to find a cash-filled plastic gourd on their front porch.

“I was still at the truck when they came running up with the pumpkin,” said their father, Craig Gilchrist. “They were so excited.”

Without any explanation of who or where it came from, the pumpkin, which had a slit cut in the top and the words ‘Gilchrist Kids Pumpkin Fund’ written around the Jack-o-Lantern’s face, sat on the family’s porch near Diamond, stuffed full of $84 in cash and coins. They also received a $50 check in the mail.

“I felt really, really excited when I saw the pumpkin,” said Mason, a budding basketball star who was drawing a Jack-o-Lantern on the family’s kitchen table when interviewed by the Gazette Tuesday.

Mason, 6, and Brenna, 4, had placed their home-grown pumpkins in an honor-system patch at the corner of Endicott and Bumgarner roads for sale.

Large pumpkins went for $2 each. Small ones were 50 cents.

One week prior to the porch pumpkin, thieves robbed the John Deere piggy bank which contained an estimated $60 worth of pumpkin payments.

A night later, vandals smashed their remaining pumpkins.

After the story of the theft and vandalism got out, donations began to show up at the Gilchrist home, hoping - apparently - to make up for the stolen proceeds.

“It’s really amazing,” said Craig. “The kids go from thinking everyone’s rotten to thinking everyone’s great in one moment.”

Mother Deanna said all but two of the donations were made anonymously.

Mason and Brenna had planted the pumpkin seeds earlier this year, weeded them all summer and fall, and plucked them from their vines to put in the sale patch.

“We really appreciate the response and care our children received from the community regarding their pumpkin patch and the hard work they put into it,” she said.

Mason Monday wrote a thank you letter to “All the nice people who read the Gazette.”

“Mom says that sometimes there can be a few yucky apples on even the best tree, but there are always more good ones than bad ones. I think there are more good people around here than bad people, too,” he wrote. “God knows who they are and my Dad does, too.”

The piggy bank, on loan from older brother Bailey, was wired to a steel fence post, on loan from Craig. The thieves, frustrated by the tight wiring job, stole the post along with the bank.

Part of the donated proceeds are being used to repay Bailey for his lost bank. Craig’s on his own to replace the T-post.

Deanna said Wednesday morning the duo decided to use the remaining pumpkin donations to buy gifts for other children listed on the giving tree that will be set up in the Public Service Building later this month.

Whitman County Sheriff’s Sargeant Chris Chapman, who investigated the inital call of the theft and vandalism, said he still has no leads on who might have spoiled the Gilchrists’ Halloween enterprise.

Deanna said Mason and Brenna plan to give their pumpkin patch another go next fall.

“They are no long discouraged by what happened and plan to grow all kinds of pumpkins next year,” she said.