Each Halloween, the Utah Department of Corrections donates thousands of pumpkins to children throughout the Salt Lake valley. The 2010 donation will benefit Camp Kostopulos, a local Boys & Girls Club, a family center, special-needs students at a local school, and Primary Childrens Medical Center.
Earlier in October, Utah State Prison workers began delivering some of the approximately 2,000 pumpkins grown by some 50 inmates at the Draper site's greenhouse facility. The inmates began growing the pumpkins in June with help from prison staff and some offenders in other sections of the prison site.
The inmates and staff work year-round in the greenhouse. During the early winter months, offenders begin planting seeds for spring flowers. They are hired to work in the facility as a formal prison job. Their daily laboring hours normally last from about 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. When they have finished harvesting the pumpkins, inmates will begin growing poinsettias for the holiday season, which will be sent out to various state offices.
Below is a listing of all this year's pumpkin deliveries:
-Primary Childrens Medical Center: Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010.
-Turn Community Center: Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010.
-Murray Boys & Girls Club: Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010.
-Rise, Inc.: Friday, Oct. 15, 2010.
-Camp Kostopulos: Friday, Oct. 15, 2010.
-Shriners Hospital: Friday, Oct. 22, 2010.
-Kauri Sue Hamilton School: Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010.
-Jordan Valley Family Center: Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010.
For more information on the events, please contact the Department of Corrections' Public Information Officer at 801-545-5500.
Photos (Above): Lt. Ivie, left, and Officer Tuttle of the Utah State Prison help a young student select a pumpkin at the Oct. 26 donation at the Kauri Sue Hamilton school in Riverton.
(Below): A Kauri Sue Hamilton student beaming after picking out a pumpkin.
