On Sunday evening, Oct. 11, a trail in Hardwick, Vermont, filled with light from about 350 carved pumpkins. The annual Pumpkin Walk drew roughly 400 parents, children and other community members, The Hardwick Gazette reported. Hardwick Elementary students carved the pumpkins in art classes. Students from Hazen Union’s Dare to be Me class helped move pumpkins and assist with carving, and some remembered making their own for the walk when they attended the elementary school.
Hardwick Trails had announced the walk for 6 to 8 p.m. at its trails on Hazen Union Drive. The committee called it the 23rd annual Pumpkin Walk and described it as a free community event sponsored by the Hardwick Trails Committee. Its notice invited families and friends to follow pumpkin signs from the Hazen Union parking lot. A bonfire, a Friendly Witch, cider and doughnuts were listed among the evening’s features.
The number of pumpkins needs a correction of its own. The Gazette’s first headline and version of the report used a higher count, but an editor’s note dated Oct. 14 says the story was changed to correct the number. The updated headline reads “350 carved pumpkins draw crowd,” and the body describes about 350 pumpkins along the trail. This account follows the corrected figure rather than the earlier count.
The pumpkins were carved at Hardwick Elementary. The Gazette reported that third graders worked on them Oct. 8 in art teacher Beth LeCours’s classes. A photograph caption identifies the student-carvers as third graders and says they carved the pumpkins for the Sunday walk. The independent report gives a specific starting point for the display: students’ classroom work, completed three days before the event.
Hazen Union School’s Dare to be Me students helped with the next part. According to the Gazette, they unloaded pumpkins at a cabin behind the school, then moved them to and from Hardwick Elementary and visited twice to help students in LeCours’s art classes with carving. Some of the Hazen students remembered carving pumpkins for the same walk when they were HES students. The report describes practical help across the two schools and a connection to the event from the students’ own childhoods.
Families arriving early for the 6 p.m. event, while it was still light, or carrying flashlights could read a new StoryWalk placed along the trail by Jeudevine Memorial Library. The book was “Room on the Broom,” written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The Gazette said the StoryWalk remained on the trail after the Pumpkin Walk for other visitors to see, extending that part of the event beyond the Sunday gathering.
The evening also included storytelling. The Gazette reported that Lesa Cathcart read what she calls “not so scary Halloween stories” to children at the walk. The newspaper described children responding to her animated reading. Her storytelling joined the other activities described by the event notice: following the pumpkin signs, gathering by the bonfire, and having cider and doughnuts.
Hazen Union art teacher James Lockhart carved a special pumpkin for the beginning of the trail. The Gazette said he had done so for many years and that this year he recruited a carver from Stowe to contribute a second professionally carved pumpkin. The paper also quoted Hardwick Trails member Helen Beattie describing the walk’s simplicity and predictability as part of its appeal.
The organizer’s notice and the post-event report together describe a local evening shaped by specific contributions. Hardwick Elementary students carved the pumpkins; Hazen Union students helped move them and joined the carving sessions; the walk was free and sponsored by the Trails Committee; Jeudevine Memorial Library set up the StoryWalk; and local readers and carvers added activities along the route. Those details are what the coverage documents about the 2026 event.
The walk ran on Oct. 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hardwick Trails, with parking at Hazen Union and signs pointing attendees toward the route. The newspaper’s approximate attendance figure was “400 or so,” rather than a ticket count. The corrected pumpkin total was about 350. The sources leave those numbers qualified, while documenting the event date, the student work and the activities offered to families.
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