VIDEO: Dozens sling pumpkins for annual competition in Little Rock

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MITCHELL PE MASILUN --11/6/2016--
Kids and spectators react to a pumpkin splitting during the 13th Annual pumpkin Roll in Hillcrest Sunday, November 6, 2016. For more photos go to www.arkansasonline.com/Galleries
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MITCHELL PE MASILUN --11/6/2016-- Kids and spectators react to a pumpkin splitting during the 13th Annual pumpkin Roll in Hillcrest Sunday, November 6, 2016. For more photos go to www.arkansasonline.com/Galleries

Dozens of parents, kids and spectators flocked to Midland Street Sunday to fling discarded pumpkins down a steep stretch of the residential roadway in Little Rock's Hillcrest neighborhood.

The Hillcrest Pumpkin Roll, a competition to find out which gourd can go the distance, started 13 years ago as an opportunity to both watch a little pumpkin destruction and raise money for charity, said John Baker, one of the event's founders.

Baker, who is a partner at a local law firm, said he and his neighbors were “intrigued” by the steepness of their street. They thought it’d be entertaining to put leftover Halloween pumpkins to good use and see how far they could travel down the slope.

The tradition started more than a decade ago with just a handful of families watching the spectacle. Now, mainly through word of mouth, the event attracts hordes of people every year.

“It’s getting kind of crazy,” Baker said, adding that he might request a few off-duty police officers to help keep the street clear next year.

Participants pay $5 for a chance to roll their pumpkin, and this year Baker said they netted a little over $1,500 to a local charity, Camp Aldersgate.

“Its pretty funny for just an hour and a half worth of fun to raise that kind of money,” Baker said.

Everyone’s goal is to get their pumpkin all the way to Lee Avenue, Baker said, which is a feat that’s hard to achieve. Next year, Baker said he might add two lanes for “concurrent rolling,” which could result in something like pumpkin bumper-cars.

The winners, who are mostly kids, get bragging rights and a glass trophy they can “lord over their neighbors,” Baker said. Some have even won the Pumpkin Roll multiple times.

Those lucky few, said Baker, “are kind of legendary.”

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