A dream is a wish come true as 2022 Sycamore Pumpkin Festival opens

SYCAMORE – Crowds gathered in downtown Sycamore Wednesday evening to wish upon a pumpkin and kick off the 61st annual Sycamore Pumpkin Festival with a festive giant sheet cake cutting, donated by Hy-Vee.

Peter Schram, 78, has lived in Sycamore for the past 25 years and was out enjoying the opening day of the festival. Schram said the opening day of the Sycamore Pumpkin festival is always exciting. The cake, adorned with traditional Pumpkin Fest icing, was served up by members of the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival Committee to kick off the five-day festival, which culminates with a parade Sunday.

“Absolutely delicious,” Schram said. “Thank you Hy-Vee, keep ‘em coming.”

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Mason Clark (left) honorable mention in the theme contest, Vivian Rubicz, theme contest winner, and Lennox Freeman, (right) honorable mention, take the first cut out of the giant cakes donated by Hy-Vee during the cake cutting ceremony Wednesday, Oct.26, 2022 on North Maple Street near the DeKalb County Courthouse during the first day of the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival. (Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com/Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.co)

The ceremonial cake cutting was done on the corner of North Maple Street and West State Street at 5 p.m. by the winner of the 2022 Pumpkin Festival theme contest winner, Vivian Rubicz, and the two runner up contestants Mason Clark and Lennox Freeman. Rubicz won the spring contest with her theme “A Wish Upon a Pumpkin.”

To start the festivities, Terri Goodman, president of the Pumpkin Festival Committee, thanked the sponsors of the festival, saying the festival would not be celebrating its 61st rendition if it weren’t for the patrons of the festival.

The festival started as a fundraising project by Wally Thurow for the Sycamore Lions Club. It began as a pumpkin-decorating contest that drew 300 entries in its first year before expanding to include food options, a pie-eating contest and a dance at the armory.

Since its inaugural rendition, the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival has been an event held by local nonprofit organizations and benefits those same entities. Participants in this year’s pumpkin decorating contest also dropped their creations off in front of the DeKalb County Courthouse lawn Wednesday, awaiting judgement in the coming days.

After serving cake to droves of pumpkin fest goers, Goodman, who has participated in the festival since she was 5, said the annual tradition is a part of her DNA.

“This particular festival is a way to serve the community and all of the nonprofits in the area in such a great way,” Goodman said. “It really is a main fundraiser for a lot of the nonprofits and so the fact that we are able to bring them all together in one place – so that, you know, people from town, people from out of town can come. Thousands of people come and support our nonprofits, it’s really, really heartwarming.”

Erin DeWitt, 26, a director on the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival Committee and local Kiwanis club member, said serving the community was a joy.

“It’s something I’ve grown up with and I really like the fact that I can help give back a little bit because this ... is bigger than Christmas in my family,” DeWitt, an art teacher at Sycamore High School said.

Sycamore Fourth Ward Alderman David Stouffer attended with his three children Declan Stouffer, Carson Stouffer and Finn Stouffer. David Stouffer described Wednesday’s festivities as “amazing” and “electric.”

“Everyone comes around, gets together, we all know that we’re here for a good time and there’s plenty of stuff to do,” Stouffer said.

Stouffer also heralded said the opening ceremony’s turnout.

“It’s good to see people getting back out and getting involved again, and yeah, it’s just awesome,” Stouffer said.

Sycamore Community School District 427 school board member, Michael DeVito II, is a director on the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival Committee and was among those serving the community the Hy-Vee sheet cake Wednesday evening.

DeVito said being surrounded by the community and serving cake to everyone that accepted was “just chaos.”

“At the very beginning, just this rush of people, grabbing cake left and right, and then now it simmers down and now you get little bursts of a rush now and again, but the best part is the end – you get to eat the frosting, whatever’s left over, so that’s nice,” DeVito said. “And then we donate, of course, the rest to the fire department and police.”

That cake was the highlight for many attending the festival Wednesday but others were already anticipating the culmination of the five day festival.

State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, said his favorite part of the festival is the parade.

“You know we throw a big party on parade day and it’s always a good reminder of how much this community means to everybody that lives here,” Keicher said.

Schram said his favorite part of the festival is also the parade. However, when Stouffer asked his three children what their favorite part of the festival is they all replied in unison: “Cake.”