After a year of scraping together scarce resources and volunteers, the Benson Gristmill is set to restore a popular Stansbury tradition this weekend.
The gristmill’s abrupt closure in 2013 canceled multiple community events that typically used the historical site as a venue, including the popular Pumpkin Walk — an event that attracted 5,000 patrons in 2012, according to Benson Gristmill director Jodi Brunson.
Because of its popularity with the surrounding community, the Pumpkin Walk made a short list of events the Benson Gristmill planned to restore after a year of inactivity in 2013. The gristmill is now open only on weekends and run by a single part-time employee with the help of a board of volunteers.
Despite the year-long hiatus, the Pumpkin Walk should return as a good-sized event this year, Brunson said. In addition to the event’s traditional crafts and games for kids, Brunson said 35 local vendors have signed up to sell food and peddle wares during the two-day Pumpkin Walk. Booths selling Tupperware, jewelry, wood crafts and other merchandise will be available.
But Brunson said it remains to be seen whether the community will remember and return to the Pumpkin Walk, because the gristmill has been unable to advertise the event extensively.
“Hopefully word of mouth will get people back,” she said.
The 2013 shutdown has taken a toll on at least one Pumpkin Walk tradition — the pumpkins themselves. The Pumpkin Walk actually started as a small pumpkin-carving contest, Brunson said, but eventually local schools became involved in the pumpkin decorating, and the event took off from there.
This year, however, there are only seven pumpkin displays — each designed to fit the theme “pumpkins in history” — entered in the contest.
“We tried to match up the event’s dates with when we did them in the past,” Brunson said, but this year they may have accidentally run into UEA, which could have impacted the schools’ traditional participation.
It could also impact attendance, she said.
“I’m not sure if we’ll get more or less because the kids are home,” Brunson said. “So hopefully they’ll all come here instead of going out of town.”
The Pumpkin Walk will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday, with free games and activities for kids from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on both days. On Saturday several local performing groups will provide free entertainment from noon until 6 p.m. Admission is free.