The arrival of fall brings with it a variety of hand-painted, cheerful-looking pumpkins on display in store windows, shop counters and home porches around town. This beloved tradition is a fundraiser by the West Grayson Retired School Personnel Association (WGRSPA), and it’s become a part of the fabric of the Whitesboro community each year.
It all began in 2000 when Curtis Anne Kinsfather had the idea of painting pumpkins to sell as the fundraiser for the original West Grayson Retired Teachers Association. The project has certainly grown from that first year with 10 pumpkins at the Peanut Festival to an organized project with over 200 sold each of the last two years.
After moving from the Peanut Festival to the Methodist Men’s BBQ dinner, it became obvious that the challenge of lugging pumpkins around town was not helping sales. The operation was moved to Kinsfather’s garage on Texoma Drive with the Whitesboro History Club sharing the cost.
Charles Busby would drive the Clinnon’s Grocery Store forklift down Union Sreet to Texoma Drive and deliver the pumpkins to Kinsfather’s garage. A recent News-Record’s archives section shared a 2005 article stating that customers came to purchase the painted pumpkins at 219 Texoma Drive. Any unsold pumpkins were taken to the Peanut Festival BBQ dinner again with the hopes of selling them there.
Eventually, sales teams were formed, orders taken in advance of painting and delivered to customers’ homes or businesses. Convenience made a difference and the project grew steadily through the years. After Kinsfather passed away in 2020, Pumpkin Central (as it came to be lovingly called) moved to T.R. and Mark Fletcher’s shop north of town.
Several years ago, Brookshire Brothers became the supplier of the pumpkins and members of the organization (now named West Grayson Retired School Personnel Association, or WGRSPA) met at the store’s loading dock to put the pumpkins on utility trailers.
Mary Nan Story, who shared the history of the Pumpkin Project at the WGRSPA meeting Oct. 7 held at First State Bank, noted that Brookshire Brothers Grocery is good to the WGRSPA.
“They give us a good price, assign us a helper from their staff, allow us to choose our pumpkins, return any flawed ones and they donate $500 to our fundraiser,” Story said.
David Ledbetter, local Brookshire Brothers manager, said that they like to support projects focusing on community and family and that WGRSPA’s pumpkin project is the one they have chosen.
A highlight at the October meeting was Harold Tamplen’s impressive video, “West Grayson RSPA Pumpkin Painting 2012,” which was displayed on the bank’s jumbo screen.
The video featured not only the steps of the pumpkin decorating process, but also the specialties of specific members from drawing faces, painting, adding the small details such as sparkles in the eyes or designs on the scarecrow patches to adding toppers (straw or ribbon “hair,” big bows or hats).
WGRSPA appreciates every pumpkin sale. These pumpkins are more than orange members of the gourd family -- they help encourage reading, education, teaching and other improvements. The funds earned are donated for books in all the school libraries of Whitesboro, Collinsville, S&S Consolidated and Tioga ISDs. Additionally, each third grader in all four of these schools receives his own book through the organization’s book projects. Scholarships are presented each year as well.
Donations are also made to the Texas Retired Teacher Foundation (TRTF) which is the focus for the Nov. 4 meeting at 11:30 a.m. at Las Haciendas. Members will donate gifts and play TRTF bingo to raise more funds for the foundation which assists retired teachers who are victims of disasters or a health crisis. The foundation also presents first year teacher and innovative teacher grants. Any retired school employee who is a TRS annuitant is encouraged to attend.