Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin Festival with 14 teams competing in the chuck, 3 teams in the
Chili Cook Off, 31 volunteers and over 1,000 spectators enjoying the chuckin, chili, beer,
wine, food, raffles, two bands, face-painting, and games. Over $13,000 was raised for the
Clarina Howard Nichols Center (Morrisville) whose staff and volunteers did an amazing
job running the festival. The Clarina Howard Nichols Center is doing great work and they
did a fantastic job running the festival for the second year in a row!
Stapleton family sweep using the new “walking arm” trebuchet design!
For the 2nd year in a row, Orion Stapleton won the overall Grand Prize coming out of the
Lightweight Division. His dad, Jonathan Stapleton, won the Heavyweight division. John
was gracious enough to put an “instructable” up on our festival blog showing a video,
pictures and text to build his new “walking arm” trebuchet design and showing how to
scale it up to middleweight or heavyweight division.
Special mention:
Theresa Tipper has come many years in a row and this year brought 3 trebuchets to
compete in the Lightweight Division! Nick Helms has competed 10 out of eleven years
(more than any other competitor, including the organizer Dave Jordan) and brought a
totally new design this year to the festival. The Chamberlain brothers from Moosilauke,
NH are usually the first to arrive (a day early) and this year was no different. But this
year, they split divisions with Ray staying in the Middleweight and Ed moving up to the
Heavyweight Division. One of many father/son teams competed with Steven and Steve
McCann with the son beating the father, just as Orion beat his dad (Jon Stapleton). Don
Jordan (father of the organizer) competed for the 9th time at age 89!
New competitors:
We had a number of new competitors this year: Finn Riley and John (Muddy Dogs), Tyler
Barnard and Julie (Engineering Ventures), Andy Smith, Chris Boudreau, Juan barena,
Kellen Louis, and Tom Laroche (Heritage Aviation)
Results of the trebuchet contest:
Lightweight Division (age 10 and under, trebuchet limited to 20 lbs. and 41”)
- 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Orion Stapleton from VT.
- 2nd place trophy plus $25 cash: Theresa Tipper from VT. (Tipper A)
- 3rd place trophy plus $10 cash: Theresa Tipper from VT. (Tipper B)
- 4th place: Theresa Tipper from VT. (Tipper C)
- 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Steven McCann from Maine. (MAX D 23)
- 2nd place trophy plus $25 cash: Finnian Riley from VT. (Muddy Dogs)
- 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Ray Chamberlain from NH (Moosilauke Hurlers)
- 2nd place trophy plus $25 cash: Tyler Barnard from VT. (Engineering Ventures)
- 3rd place trophy plus $10 cash: Don Jordan from NY. (Team Jordan)
- 1st place trophy plus $50 cash: Jonathan Stapleton from VT.
- 2nd place trophy plus $25 cash: Ed Chamberlain from NH. (Moosilauke Hurlers)
Summary of all competitors (all distances adjusted and scaled up to Heavyweight)
Lightweight Division: (scaling 2.9268)
- 1st place: Orion Stapleton, 658 feet
- 2nd place: Theresa Tipper, (Tippers B) 223 feet
- 3rd place: Theresa Tipper (Tippers C) 181 feet
- 4th place: Theresa Tipper (Tipper A) 118 feet
- 1st place: Steven McCann, (MAX D 23) 319 feet
- 2nd place: Finnian Riley, (Muddy Dogs) 41 feet
- 1st place: Ray Chamberlain, (Moosilauke Hurlers) 503 feet
- 2nd place: Tyler Barnard, (Engineering Ventures) 499 feet
- 3rd place: Don Jordan, (Team Jordan) 439 feet
- 4th place: Nick Helms, (Weapons of Mass Destruction) 357 feet
- 5th place: Steve McCann (MAX D 23) 319 feet
- 6th place: Andy Smith (Heritage Aviation) 317 feet
- 1st place: John Stapleton, 487 feet
- 2nd place: Ed Chamberlain (Moosilauke Hurlers) 181 feet
Chili Cook-Off:
The chili cook-off was a great success with three competitors and running out of chili
before the end of the festival. Thanks for Deb Papineau (Deb's Place) for running the
show.
Sponsors and Volunteers:
Thanks to our main sponsor, Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa for letting us use their
beautiful field for free, as well as all the other sponsors:
Heavy Weight Sponsors – N.A. Manosh and NorthCountry Federal Credit Union
Middle Weight Sponsors – Bourne’s Energy, Casella, Community National Bank, and Jay
Peak Resort
Light Weight Sponsors – Coldwell Banker Carlson Real Estate, Deb’s Place, Donald P.
Blake Jr., Inc., Edward Jones – Caren Merson, Leaves of Change VT, MSI, Stowe Motel,
Olsen and Associates, PP&D Distribution, The Alchemist, The Bagel, Umiak Outdoor
Outfitters, UPS Store, Yellow Turtle
Special thanks to Bruce Wallace and his family for being the Master of Ceremonies and
helping for the last 9 years, to Phil, Ethan, Ed, Brian, Kelsey for registration and
calculating the winners, to Tricia Kules (Little River Survey) for accurate distance
readings, to Mike Dunn for excellent sound system and House Dunn (Mike, Isabella,
Jocelyn and Julia, and John Smyth for great music, to Bob Gross for helping out with
safety and setup for the last 10 years, to Dan McLaughlin for tent setup.
Please contact me with any suggestions for next year's festival or corrections to this
write-up. Djordan@gmavt.net
We look forward to the next festival, Sept. 27th, 2020 at the Stoweflake.
Dave Jordan
Festival organizer
161 Henway Road
Morrisville, VT 05661
