The two day Jack Hannah Pumpkin Carving Competition, at the Columbus Zoo, started near dawn with the set up of the People’s Choice Competition Entries. Anyone of any carving skill could enter this category of the competition. The winners were selected by a vote of the people who attended the zoo for the two days. Over 3000 ballots were submitted by people of all ages. You’ll see in the subjects of the carvings, that children were expected to be active voters. And they were.
The Jack Hannah pumpkin carving competition also had 3 other competition events including a Masters 3D competition, a Masters Build competition, as well as a Professional and Amateur competition. There was a total of $7900 in cash prizes.
The top 5 winners in the People’s Choice won $100 cash prize each.
Let us know your favorites in the comments section below.
The Winners of the Jack Hanna Pumpkin Carving Competition are:
1st Place Winner
The runaway winner of the first place prize was Shannon Gerasimchick with his beautiful and big sea turtle.
Shannon Gersimchick’s sea turtle was the 1st place winner. Titled “Under the Sea”, it was carved from a 300 pound pumpkin.
Shannon originally carved a 300 pound pumpkin to look like a Triceratops dinosaur. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately, as it turned out) the triceratops pumpkin collapsed while being transported to the event. Shannon cleverly re-purposed the carving into the shell of a sea turtle. And he won the first place prize by wide margin.
2nd Place Winner
The second place People’s Choice prize went to Jon Michaels with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed carving
The entry named “Look at Me Leonardo” by Jon Michaels featuring Teenage Ninja Turtles won 2nd prize. The inside of the top head was lit with a blue light to add an eerie glow.
3rd Place Winner
Dean Arnold took 3rd place with his skillfully carved pumpkin man carving a pumpkin gorilla
Here is a close up look at Dean Arnold’s pumpkin carving of a Gorilla
A closer look at Dean’s pumpkin man.
In 4th place was Danny Kissel’s vulture scene was named “Dinner to Go”.
The points from the ranking in the People’s Choice were factored into the final overall score to determine the overall winner of the Master’s category. This is the piece that brought Danny’s score up to edge out three time overall masters champion Dean Murray by only 4 points.
Here’s a closer look at Danny Kissel’s vulture. Notice the remains dripping from the beak. Nice touch.
Titus Arensberg’s Godzilla won the 5th place prize.
Here’s a closer look at Godzilla’s sneakers. Besides being humorous, these added shoes were a tribute to one of Titus’ friends who has passed.
The following carvings were the remaining entries of the Jack Hanna Pumpkin Carving Competition listed in order of votes received.
Mike Brown’s 6th Place winning pumpkin sculpture, dubbed “Dinner Time”
Closer look at the skillfully carved expression of pumpkin man who’s brains are getting eaten
Mike Brown’s evil, brain eating pumpkin
Maryse Richard’s pumpkin squirrel and acorn tree placed 6th.
Jim Morgan played to the crowd with his characters from the movie Frozen. When standing nearby, I often heard girls saying, “Oh, look, it’s Elsa and Olaf”.
Jim Morgan carved and painted Elsa and Olaf from the Disney Movie Frozen. this was the 8th place winner.
Dean Murray carved up 3 Star Wars characters and placed 9th. He named his entry “Do or Do Not”.
This cleverly constructed Minion moon landing scene in by Stephan Koch placed 1oth.
Batman Minion created by Ryan Roth placed 11th. He named this “The Dork Knight”.
Tyler Coleman’s pumpkin Star Wars scene placed 12th with his entry named “Near and Far Wars”.
This was a clever spoof on the original movie opening
Creepy giant spider by Dustin Weatherby placed 13th.
It takes 3 photos to show you all 3 sides of William Wilson’s entry with 3 different Marvel comic characters. This placed 14th.
Marvel Characters by William Wilson
William ended up having to do a lot of touch up carving after the red towels he wrapped his sculptures in, bled red all over the pumpkins. He was up until 3:00 in the morning repairing the damage.
Marvel Characters by William Wilson.
Captain America pumpkin by William Wilson
Stack of Ninja Turtle pumpkins, named “Turtle Power” by Trent Mason was the 15th favorite.
This next competition entry looks like he’s not feeling so well…
“Wormy” by Jeremy Smith.
Autumn man carved onto green squash by Gus Smithhisler was named “Seasons Change”.
Isn’t this a create collection of different ideas and style of pumpkin carving? The winners were chosen by the visitors of the zoo. Each was able to cast a ballot choosing their favorite. Children were active voters as well as adults. This segment of the competition was NOT judged by the judges at all.
Which one of the Jack Hanna Pumpkin Carving Competition, People’s Choice entries, do you like the best? Free free to let us know in the comments section below.
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