The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Flying pumpkins a hit at scholarship fundraiser

Machines tossed pumpkins more than 1,200 feet.

New pool at 'The Heights' opens
5/27/12
Huber Heights suing consultant for more than $50,000
5/26/12
4 arrested for OVI at Kettering checkpoint
5/26/12
Man found dead at bar; police seek suspect
5/26/12
Turner adopts role for Romney campaign
5/26/12
> More headlines

By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer 11:28 PM Saturday, October 22, 2011

YELLOW SPRINGS — The flying objects at Young’s Jersey Dairy on Saturday were not birds or planes. They were pumpkins.

Pumpkins were sent hurling through the air as part of the first Midwest Pumpkin Chuck, hosted by the Dayton Team American Chucker to raise money for scholarships for high school math and science students.

More than 100 people gathered in the field just behind a batting cage and watched the Dayton Team American Chucker, Team Ethos, and honors and advanced placement science students from Miamisburg High School use launching machines to send pumpkins more than 1,200 feet into a field.

Kevin Reynolds, 43, of Waynesville, cheered as the pumpkins were sent flying high into the sky.

“Anytime you can fling a pumpkin, that is good times,” Reynolds said.

The Dayton Team American Chuckers are mostly Wright-Patterson Air Force Base employees who compete nationally.

Steve Beyer, a member of the Dayton Team American Chucker, said the event was not a competition.

Beyer said he and others organized the event and invited Team Ethos, who are also Wright Patterson employees, to show students how fun math and science can be.

“This is applied science. It’s a learning process and a fun process and it gets kids outdoors and out of the classroom,” Beyer said.

Launching machines included a trebuchet, onager and catapults. The trebuchet design dates back to the Middle Ages and uses a counterweight to power missiles.

The onager is a type of catapult that uses pressure from twisted rope to fire the shot.

Miamisburg students in the honors physics class built their own catapult and managed to send pumpkins nearly 240 feet, said Wayne King, a physics teacher at Miamisburg.

King said students built a 15-foot catapult earlier this week, but after it collapsed on Friday.

Students built a smaller machine in three or four hours that was used at the fundraiser on Saturday.

Cory Howard, 18, a senior at Miamisburg, said he was proud of what he and his teammates accomplished.

“Who would think that a bunch of high school kids could do something like this,” Howard said.

Austin Capell, 16, a junior, said the event helped students better understand what they were learning in class.

“It was a very productive tool,” Capell said. “It made it more interesting because it applied to what we were learning and when you apply it, it’s a lot more fun and students understand it more.”

Share this article