St. Paul Avenue in Milwaukee will get a face-lift this Halloween. Milwaukee-based Gravity Marketing, in partnership with Pritzlaff Redevelopment and Local First Milwaukee will host Operation Pumpkin MKE on Wednesday, Oct. 19. The public is invited to come and help carve 500 pumpkins into Jack O’ Lanterns which will be displayed in the windows of the Pritzlaff building along St. Paul Avenue.
“It’s going to be a family-friendly event,” said Chelsea Berg, account manager at Gravity. “We love the Pritzlaff space and we’re all about making downtown a fun and vibrant place to be. We think lighting up 500 pumpkins every night will be something that can draw attention and bring people downtown.”
According to Berg, the event will feature music, unlimited food and beverages, pumpkin carving contests and prizes. Guests can attend for $20.
“Our focus is to make this a very local event,” Berg said. “All the proceeds collected after covering the cost of the pumpkins will be donated to Local First Milwaukee, an organization dedicated to supporting the buy local movement.”
Local First Milwaukee was formerly known as Our Milwaukee. The pumpkins were purchased from a local farmer and Gravity Marketing is working with Growing Power to compost the insides and other scraps from the pumpkins.
“It’s all very sustainable,” Berg said. “We’re hoping, once the pumpkins are stacked in the windows and lit up every night it will create quite an impactful art display.”
The group plans to light up the pumpkins for the first time on Saturday, Oct. 22.
All pumpkins carved at the event must be used in the window display, but guests can come and view their pumpkin until Tuesday, Nov. 1 when the display will be taken down.
The event will be held at the Pritzlaff, 333 N. Plankington Ave., from 5 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19. To register, visit www.operationpumpkinmke.com.
The groups hope to be able to put on this event every year, Berg said.
Pictured: A Rendering of Operation Pumpkin Mke display
