Halloween treat! Dayton’s Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow is back and needs your help

Dayton’s Halloween spectacle – the Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow- is back and needs volunteers.  DAYTON DAILY NEWS STAFF FILE PHOTO

Credit: Teesha Mcclam

Credit: Teesha Mcclam

Dayton’s Halloween spectacle – the Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow- is back and needs volunteers. DAYTON DAILY NEWS STAFF FILE PHOTO

Dayton’s Halloween spectacle — the Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow — is back and needs volunteers.

This year’s event will be held Oct. 25 and 26 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night. It was cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

The Dayton community came together to carve over one thousand pumpkins for this year's annual Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow. You can bask in the glow of these pumpkins near the Dayton Art Institute and Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church on Oct. 30-31. TOM GILLIAM / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Credit: Tom Gilliam

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Credit: Tom Gilliam

It takes a lot of effort to pull off the free community event.

This year organizers need volunteers to gut, trace and carve pumpkins Oct. 21 – 24. Volunteer hours will be from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.

The activity is fun for all ages. Food is available for volunteers throughout the day.

Organizers are asking people to sign up at signupgenius.com so they can have a count.

The  Stoddard Ave Pumpkin Glow in Grafton Hill.

Credit: Teesha Mcclam

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Credit: Teesha Mcclam

Each year a hill behind the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 500 N. Belmonte Park N. in the Grafton Hill neighborhood is covered in glowing, intricately carved pumpkins.

Judith Chaffin, known as the “The Pumpkin Lady,” began the Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow in Dayton’s Grafton Hill neighborhood in 1994 with just 36 pumpkins.

The event has grown since its humble beginnings.

In 2019 hundreds of volunteers carved more than 1,000 pumpkins for the event that drew large crowds to the hillside.