We had a beautiful, clear warm day at the Stowe Events Field in Stowe, VT for the 15th Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin Festival. There were 10 teams of chuckers, 16 teams in the volleyball tournament, 5 teams in the Chili Cook-Off, 9 food vendors, 39 craft vendors, 45 volunteers, and an estimated record attendance of 2500 spectators enjoying the hurling, chili cook-off judging, arts and craft show, food trucks, 2 bands, a giant robot roaming around the field, kids activities, and a volleyball tournament.
We raised nearly $40,000 for the
Clarina Howard Nichols Center. Funds raised come from entrance fees, business sponsors, t-shirt sales, the chili cookoff, on-site donations, and craft fair vendor fees. The Center’s director, Becky Gonyea, and her tremendous group of volunteers did an amazing job planning and running the festival for the sixth year!
Thank you to all of our business sponsors:- Heavyweight sponsors: 10 Railroad Street/The Blue Donkey, Fidium Fiber, Maggie McLeod Macdonald Fund, Smugglers’ Notch Resort, Three Mountain Roofing, Vermont Community Foundation.
- Middleweight sponsors: Coldwell Banker Carlson Real Estate, Community National Bank, In Company, Leaves of Change Vermont, Nichols & Associates, P.C., Piecasso Family Pizzeria, Union Bank
- Lightweight sponsors: Bourne’s Energy, Casella Waste Systems, Commodities Natural Market, Donald P. Blake Jr. Inc., Edward Jones-Caren Merson, Financial Advisor, El Gato Cantina, Hook & Peel Mobile Pizza Kitchen, Johnson Hardware & Rental, Manufacturing Solutions Inc., Mediterranean Mix, N.A. Manosh, Sana at Stowe, Stowe Sandwich Company, The Country Store on Main, The Melted Cheesiere, Trombley & Day Group, Two Sons Bakehouse.
New Heavyweight trebuchet world record of 879 feet by Jonathan Stapleton’s amazing “Walking Arm” design:
The heavyweight division has a trebuchet height limit of 10 feet and the complete trebuchet has a weight limit of 500 pounds. They are required to throw a pumpkin that must weigh at least 5 pounds. To our knowledge, no trebuchet with these limits has thrown a 5-pound pumpkin anywhere close to 879 feet. Last year’s winning throw and previous world record was 861 feet.
A Merlin design trebuchet tied for first in our Middleweight Open division:
Orion and Jonathan Stapleton entered a Merlin design trebuchet in the Middleweight Open division and they tied with Zai Gluck’s Walking Arm design. Both teams threw 606 feet when scaled up to a 10-foot height. Out of 10 teams this year, 6 used the Stapleton Walking Arm design, 1 had a Merlin design, 1 had a whipper design, 1 had a floating arm design and 1 had a King Arthur design. Not a single competitor this year used a traditional trebuchet design. See below for details about each team’s results.
Height and weight limits explained:
You may have been told that no math was involved, but some is required to make the design competition fair for all of the contestants. All divisions have height and weight limits. If the limits are exceeded, we allow them to compete, but the actual throw is reduced accordingly. For example, if a throw went 100 feet, but the trebuchet was twice the weight limit, their distance would be adjusted down to 50 feet. Similarly, if a trebuchet was twice the height limit, it also would be adjusted down to 50 feet.
Scaling to determine the Grand Prize winner of Best Design
Once each division has declared its winner, the lightweight and middleweight winners are scaled up by their height ratios to compete with the heavyweight winner to determine the Grand Prize of Best Design awarded to the trebuchet that threw the best for their height. The lightweights are scaled up by height ratio (120/41 = 2.972) and the middleweights are scaled up by their height ratio (70/120 = 1.714).
Trebuchet team results:
Lightweight Open Division (limited to 41” and 20 pounds) the projectile must be over 3 ounces. Normally this division is only open to kids 9 years old and younger, but we only had one competitor, who was several decades over the age limit, so we changed the division from Lightweight Junior to Lightweight Open, so it was open to all ages.
Lightweight Open:
Place: 1st place, $100 cash prize
Trebuchet Name: Old Man’s Bucket List
Trebuchet Design: Walking Arm
Best throw: actual = 126 feet, adjusted for penalty and scaling = 254 feet
There were no Middleweight Junior Division entries this year.
Middleweight Open Division (limited to 70” and 100 pounds, the projectile must weigh over 1 pound).
This was a highly competitive division with only 48 feet separating the top six teams! Two teams tied for 1st place, each team received $100 cash.
Trebuchet Name: Gourd Goblins
Trebuchet Design: Stapleton Walking Arm
Best throw: actual 354 feet, adjusted for scaling = 606 feet
Captain: Orion and Jonathan Stapleton
Best throw: actual 354 feet, adjusted for scaling = 606 feet
Place: 2nd place, received $50 cash
Captain: Steven McCann
Trebuchet Name: MAX D23
Trebuchet Design: Stapleton Walking Arm
Best throw: actual 345 feet, adjusted for scaling = 591 feet
Place: 3rd place, received $25 cash
Captain: Dave Jordan
Trebuchet Name: Bad Boomer
Trebuchet Design: King Arthur
Best throw: actual 318 feet, adjusted for scaling = 545 feet
Place: Tied for 4th place
Captain: Zach Taylor
Trebuchet Name: Chunker T
Trebuchet Design: Stapleton Walking Arm
Best throw: actual 306 feet, adjusted for scaling = 524 feet
Place: Tied for 4th place
Captain: Michael Porzio
Trebuchet Name: Printed Power
Trebuchet Design: Stapleton Walking Arm
Best throw: actual 306 feet, adjusted for scaling = 524 feet
Place: 5th place
Captain: Steve McCann
Trebuchet Name: Pumpkin Axe 2
Trebuchet Design: Floating Arm
Best throw: actual 102 feet, adjusted for scaling = 174 feet
Heavyweight Division (limited to 120” and 500 pounds, the projectile must weigh over 5 pounds):
Place: 1st place, $100 cash prize. Also won Best Design, a $200 cash prize!
Captain: Jonathan Stapleton (inventor of the Stapleton Walking Arm design)
Trebuchet Name: Controlled Chaos
Trebuchet Design: Stapleton Walking Arm
Best throw: actual 879 feet, adjusted for scaling = 879 feet
Place: 2nd place, $50 cash prize
Captain: Nicholas Helms
Trebuchet Name: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Trebuchet Design: Whipper
Best throw: actual 294 feet, adjusted for scaling = 294 feet
Chili Cook-Off Contest:
There were 5 entries in the chili cookoff. Festival attendees, who wanted to judge, paid $5 to taste and rank their choice of the 5 different chili dishes.
- 1st place: Carter Peck, #5, $100 cash prize and a 3-course meal prepared in their home by G. Willikers Catering
- 2nd place: Chaz and Brian Albert, #4, $50 cash prize
- 3rd place: Allyson Scanlon, #3, $25 cash prize
Third Annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin Invitational Volleyball Quads Tournament:
The head of Green Mountain Volleyball, Bill Orleans promoted, ran, and competed in a volleyball tournament with 16 teams during the festival gathering the best players from Vermont, New York, and Montreal.
- 1st place: Ryan Rabidou, Kevin Devine, Taj Schottland and Aaron Fournier.
- 2nd place: Kieran Schutt, Adam Walton, Zach Kwan and Cole Schaefer.
The Giant Robot:
Joshua Nye, the head of Nye Mechworks, once again brought his giant robot. He planned to have it roaming the field waving its huge arms. Unfortunately, Mr. Robot ran into technical difficulties and was not able to leave the trailer under its own power. However, he was able to line up next to the other trebuchets and chuck a pumpkin using a small catapult! Check out nyemechworks.com for videos and more information on building your own giant robot from cheap, easily found parts.
Food Vendors:
Nine food and drink vendors were busy all day serving delicious food and beverages.
Thank you to The Melted Cheesiere, Deb’s Place, El Gato Cantina, Hook & Peel Mobile
Pizza Kitchen, Stowe Sandwich Company, Mediterranean Mix, Street Treats Ice Cream Truck, Jenna’s Promise Roasting Co., and the Peoples Academy Juniors raising funds for their trip to Vietnam.
The 2nd Annual Craft Fair was a huge success!
Event attendees enjoyed shopping from 39 craft vendors which sold a wide variety of products including pottery, jewelry, honey, clothing, maple products, woodworking, artwork, photography, and much more.
Two bands:
John Smyth (singer/songwriter) kicked off the festival with his original music while the
Teams set up their trebuchets and catapults. Then Kirkland the Band kept the party going with excellent tunes to hurl with all day long.
Volunteers:
This event would not be possible without the help of our volunteers. 45 volunteers helped to make this event a reality. Volunteers assisted with everything from setting up tents, to cleaning up, parking cars, cleaning bathrooms, collecting entrance fees, staffing the kids’ activities, measuring chuckin’ distances, and more. A special thank you to our announcer, Sean Morrissey and the youth volunteers from Peoples Academy and Stowe High School.
Next year:
Next year’s event is currently scheduled for Sunday, Sept 28, 2025, at the Stowe Events Field here in Stowe, Vermont. Please check our Facebook page and blog for details when it gets close next year because we don’t always get the date that we ask for. We will also be working on improving the parking plan for next year.
Congratulations to everyone for a great festival,
Dave Jordan
Festival organizer
