Winning Pumpkin from Kevin's Advisory - Class of 2027
Now in its third year, Sequoyah’s high school pumpkin contest pitted advisories against each other as advisors and advisees worked to create funky, artsy, and intricate pumpkins. This year, the pumpkins that placed are as follows: in first place was Kevin Delin’s ninth grade advisory with “Sisyphus”; in second place was Sam Ford’s advisory with “Moon” from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask; in third place was Daniel Yu’s advisory with “Cannibal Pumpkin”; in fourth place was Bradley Immel’s advisory with “King Julian” from Madagascar; and in fifth place was Aimee Zvinakis’s advisory with “Shaun the Sheep.” Let’s take a look at some of the 2023 pumpkin contest highlights!
Owen Hawxhurst ’27 is a member of Kevin Delin’s advisory, which placed first with their elaborate display of Sisyphus rolling a boulder (played by a pumpkin) up a hill over and over again, per the myth of Sisyphus. Hawxhurst recalls their advisory was “going through the pumpkin ideas and… narrowed it down to two. There was Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage and the Eye of Sauron. Then we couldn’t vote on them because the class was evenly divided.” The final decision was proposed by Hawxhurst’s friend Geo Mazzota ’27, which led to the advisory claiming their top spot in the competition.
The second place advisory with “Moon” had a more straightforward decision process. One of Sam Ford’s advisees proposed the idea and the team rolled with it. Marlow Cuseo’25 recalled an advisee brought their own paint, with other materials like foam for the teeth supplied for the team. Everyone was able to contribute to the pumpkin-making celebration and the fruits of their labor were well received. The “Moon” from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was a spectacular show of artistry.
The last pumpkin that made it to the top three was the “Cannibal” pumpkin that could be seen eating pumpkin pie. Certainly a creative idea!
In fourth and fifth place were Bradley Immel’s advisory with “King Julian” from Madagascar and Aimee Zvinakis’s advisory with “Shaun the Sheep,” which are also noteworthy. Lucy Pettit ’26 from Immel’s advisory would like to “give credit to Bradley… because he was the one who got us [on] the right path of thinking, what are the things that are important to us in making this pumpkin?” Immel’s advisory decided they want to hone in on one of Sequoyah’s Habits of Mind, collaboration. Pettit commented, “The thing that was important to us was…doing something all together,” and so one advisee brought in “awesome paint markers. And Bradley… brought in a knife” to carve a space in the squash which was featured as a hat of the advisory’s pumpkin. Zvinakis’s advisory also featured an extra element in their creation. Sam Almo-Milkin ’25 explained their advisory chose to portray a sheep from Shaun the Sheep alongside another sheep seen in the show. Their pumpkin was decorated to a T with cotton balls all around the pumpkin. Zvinakis’s advisory won both past pumpkin contests and gave up their throne this year to Delin’s advisory.
Two honorable mentions are the “Gender Reveal Pumpkin” and the “Smash Mouth Pumpkin,” which were equally intellectual and amusing. Created by Eric Libicki’s tenth grade advisory, the “Gender Reveal Pumpkin” was a social critique on gender reveals and presented a blue and pink painted pumpkin with the words “girl” and “boy” on either side alongside a question mark. Inside the pumpkin was another mini pumpkin demonstrating that gender is not so linear. The pumpkin examined the spectrum of gender that gender reveals often ignore. Justin Kenderes’s tenth grade advisory’s “Smash Mouth” pumpkin was a live demonstration of students smashing a pumpkin to the tune of “All Star” by Smash Mouth.
Overall, the 2023 pumpkin contest was a smashing success. If, as Lucy Pettit noted, the pumpkin-off is always “more fun, the more you engage with it,” then by all accounts Sequoyah’s high school had a blast with it this year.
