Mon City’s avenue of the hanging jack-o-lanterns returns for 5th season

By ERIC SEIVERLING

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

Monongahela will look a bit brighter for a couple weeks thanks to the Monongahela Main Street Program.

The program is starting its fifth annual “Avenue of the Hanging Jack-O-Lanterns” project, which features locally grown pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns with individual designs and hung, with lights, between Fifth and 12th streets.

A carving party is planned for 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at the New Eagle Fire Hall. The program runs through Halloween night.

The program is currently looking for sponsors to purchase a jack-o-lantern at $20 each, and a sponsor or an individual can attend the carving party.

“It’s totally unique,” Monongahela Main Street Program Executive Director Terry Necciai said. “I was looking for an idea that would bring all our organizations together. It gets about 100 people involved and that’s what excites me.”

Necciai said sponsors from previous years included rotary clubs, women’s clubs and businesses with ties to Monongahela.

Organizations that sponsor a jack-o-lantern are featured on a ribbon hanging with the jack-o-lantern.

Necciai was quick to point out that the designs on the jack-o-lanterns aren’t the usual, run-of-the-mill smiley faces found on most pumpkins.

Designs carved into the jack-o-lanterns highlight a special feature or event unique to Monongahela, such as a firecracker for the city’s Fourth of July celebration, or a dog to highlight the city’s Pooch Parade.

“It’s not an event, but it commemorates all the other events of the city,” Necciai said. “People on buses see them and it gives us a connection. I see the posts on Facebook, and it’s more like something that runs deep into people’s feelings.”

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