The First United Methodist Church in downtown Grand Junction will host a “Pumpkin Patch” for the community. Pumpkins start as low as 50 cents and vary by size.
“Some are as small as an apple, and some are bigger than I can carry by myself,” church Director of Youth Ministries and CMU student Emily Kempton said.
The church also will have a bake sale, and sell pumpkin cookbooks, gourds and boxes of straw. This is the seventh year of the pumpkin patch.
“The youth group is in charge, but all members help run the patch,” Kempton said.
Proceeds support a fund for youth groups’ summer mission trips. Instead of a trip this year they are doing a lock-in at the church and a week of community work for other nonprofits.
“It’s our chance to really be in relationship with our downtown community,” Kempton said. “The bulk of our pumpkins are sold not to our members, but to people who have never come to our church before, or if they have come, it’s because they bought a pumpkin here in prior years. We have a lot of schools’ and moms’ play groups who come to the patch for story time and then spend some time doing crafts and games. They also buy pumpkins here, too.”
The pumpkin patch has activities for kids to do like story time, photos in the patch, crafts, and snack time. Kids can also play the bean bag toss or a game called “find that pumpkin.”
“People like spending the money knowing it’s staying in our community and being put to use giving back to the community,” Kempton said.
The pumpkin patch is located at the corner of 5th and White Ave and is open seven days a week: Monday though Saturday from 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.

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