"The Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see." Linus, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
A lot of hard work and care went into planting the vegetable garden at the Bowen Island Community School. But sincerity was sorely lacking on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 15, when thieves armed with wire cutters targeted the children's garden, cutting a gaping hole in the side of the fencing and stealing all the pumpkins.
"They had to wait till the pumpkins were just right for picking before they struck they even smashed a kid-friendly plastic wheelbarrow, snipped the heads off some of the sunflowers and stole apples off the tree," says Sarah Haxby.
This calculating and malicious deed seems all the more heartbreaking after learning that five-year-oldkindergartnersplanted the pumpkin seeds with the help of Mrs. Layzell's Grade 5/6 class.The older children took on a leadership role in planting the garden as part of the school's "grow to market" program.
The pumpkins were destined for the children's classrooms, to be decorated and then displayed for Halloween.Later, the seeds were to be harvested and planted for next year's crop.
A special white variety of Cucurbita was planted this year and had produced a beautiful single white pumpkin, the best the school had ever seen.
The five-year-olds nicknamed it the "ghost" pumpkin. This, too, was taken by the thieves.
Eight pumpkins in total were stolen and in a true example of Bowen Island community solidarity, the Ruddy Potato has stepped forward and donated eight new pumpkins to the school.An RCMP investigation is pending.
