10/06/2026
I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about the Pumpkin Party in a way that represents it accurately, and I think it’s difficult because there are so many people inside the story.
Because while I (Rachel) threw the Pumpkin Party, I absolutely did not do the Pumpkin Party alone.
I got to TCH Gear early on Sunday morning, in the dark, after barely sleeping. It had rained overnight, and one of the first things I discovered was that Gary had come by before the rain and covered all of our straw so we wouldn’t lose our seating.
And that feels like a pretty good representation of the entire day. People kept seeing something that needed to be done and doing it.
Gary was incredible. From the beginning, he was very intentional about respecting that this was my event and my team. He told me he didn’t want to step on my toes or tell my people what to do. And then, when things got chaotic and he saw something important that needed direction, he stepped in exactly where he was needed.
I never once felt like he was taking over. I felt supported.
While I spent most of the day being the chaos coordinator (answering questions, solving problems, delegating, running between stations and literally running trays of food up and down the stairs) Gary became the lively host that an event like this needs.
TCH Gear allowed us to take over their property with pumpkins and straw and canopies and extension cords and hundreds and hundreds of people. Their willingness to let The Bread Lady grow into this space, and to let something this big happen here, means more than I can adequately say.
And then there were our vendors and community partners.
The fire department came and handled their part without needing anything from me. The Michigan State Police came. The Army National Guard brought their bounce house and souped-up MAT-V. The church next door, Redeemer Lutheran graciously let us use their parking lot, and their tables and chairs. Our face painter, Andi, got herself set up and immediately started making kids happy. Blue Vase books magically set up their station. Our horse-drawn hayride guys were ready early and started taking the people who showed up before the party even officially began. They are some of the kindest men I know, basically year-round Santas, and I adore them.
And Jesse deserves recognition, as well. I was running around trying to get everything ready when I suddenly realized there was music playing. Jesse had arrived, gotten himself set up, and simply started. And he played beautifully for us for hours.
Live music floating through an event like this, changes the whole atmosphere. Jesse gave us that, and I’m incredibly grateful he spent his Sunday being part of something that means so much to me.
Then there is the community.
HOLY MOLY. YOU SHOWED UP.
I don’t know exactly how many people came. Our best guess right now is somewhere around 1,500. We went through roughly 2,300 cups. Almost 600 people took hayrides. More than 60 gallons of c***r disappeared, plus the other drinks. Thousands of treats disappeared. The church parking lot stayed overflowing down the street until nearly the end.
But those numbers aren’t the important part.
I keep thinking about the little girl who gave me a picture she drew. The little boy who tapped me on the hip just to tell me thank you for throwing the party.
The kids who covered our thankful tree in leaves. The families who introduced themselves to me. The people who asked to take pictures with me.
And the people who pulled me aside throughout the day to tell me that something I had written here had resonated with them.
Those moments mean an enormous amount to me. You didn’t just attend our party, you made it matter.
And finally, and most importantly, my team.
There are no words that give them accurate credit for what these people did.
By Sunday morning, many of them had already worked an exhausting week preparing for this. And then they came back and gave me everything they had.
Amber and Abi spent the morning setting up and then made pumpkin doughnuts for the duration of the entire party. Hundreds and hundreds of them. They barely left that station.
Anna ran candle wax, hot chocolate and cookies, and everything else I asked of her.
Sheila held down the bakery counter. That sentence alone is an understatement.
Braeden was the person I could count on doing anything I pointed at, and get it done without further thought. When I had a thousand tabs open in my brain all at once, having someone running through each task is so valuable, and Braeden was that person.
Danielle and her husband absolutely carried the food table when I desperately needed someone capable to just own it.
And I had an army of teenagers running food and treats: Kodiak, Max, Jaxson, Matthew, Jo, Isaiah, Eddie, Jackson, and everyone else who jumped in wherever I pointed. We had so many people moving thousands of treats for the food tables and STILL we could barely keep up.
My son Caleb sold pumpkins all day. My son Jaxson made pumpkin donut batter all day. My brother Jo walked and worked until his body hurt.
Everywhere I looked, someone I care about was carrying something, making something, answering someone, cleaning something, fixing something or figuring something out.
And it’s making me tear up as I type this, because it means so much to me.
And then the party ended.
The guests went home.
And we still had an entire festival to take apart.
That might have been one of the hardest parts of the whole day. Everyone was running on fumes. Our bodies hurt. We were dirty. We were tired. And there were still tables and chairs and garbage and decorations and equipment and food and extension cords and a thousand other things that had to be dealt with.
And they stayed and they finished it with me. Gary helped. Even Amber stayed, and she had a 2.5 hour drive back to her Grand Rapids home that night.
At the end, some of my team finally got to climb onto the last hayride together. It’s our Pumpkin Party tradition. Anna and Abi chose to ride the MATV with the Army guys instead, which, frankly, I cannot blame them for. 😂
And for a few minutes, after spending the entire day making a party happen for everybody else, we got to enjoy a tiny piece of it ourselves.
I’ve talked a lot lately about villages.
About how if we want one, we have to be willing to be villagers. We have to inconvenience ourselves for one another. We have to show up.
Sunday, I got to stand in the middle of mine.
It looked like Gary covering straw before the rain.
It looked like Amber driving back to my house because I forgot something. It looked like Angie going to dollar general for more cups. And Colton running out for more spray oil.
It looked like volunteers arriving right when I was convinced we weren’t going to be ready. It looked like teenagers carrying trays. It looked like people making doughnuts for hours.
It looked like farmers and musicians and soldiers and firefighters and horses and books and c***r and pumpkins.
It looked like thousands of tiny acts of people deciding, “I can help with that.”
And then it looked like a community filling the property to enjoy what all of those people had built together.
Saturday night, I sat alone on the pavement outside TCH Gear and wrote about being in the “almost.”
Almost there. Almost finished. Almost able to see whether all this work was going to become what I hoped it would become. And yesterday, it did.
Thank you to Gary and everyone at TCH Gear.
Thank you to every vendor, organization, farm, business and community partner who said yes. Thank you to Jesse for giving our party its soundtrack. Thank you to every volunteer who showed up.
Thank you to every person who brought their kids, drank c***r, rode the hayride, made a craft, bought something from the bakery, introduced yourself, hugged me, encouraged me, or simply spent part of your Sunday with us.
And to my team:
I know exactly how much this cost you in energy, time and sore feet.
I saw you.
I could not have done this without you.
And I hope when you all look at the pictures and see that property completely full of people, you understand that because of all of you this all happened.
I’m grateful.
Rachel, The Bread Lady
PS. If anyone would be willing to share any photos you took, I would LOVE to see them!!
