Community rallies around Lewiston Beautification following pumpkin theft

River Region residents acted quickly this week to right a wrong that occurred in the dark of night.

Lewiston Beautification group member Tasia Fitzpatrick explained, “This was the first year our Beautification team decided to decorate on Center Street for fall. And so, we purchased 36 pumpkins from Rowan's Pumpkin Patch. He's a little boy who's 5. His father is Todd Craggs, from Craggs Farm out on Langdon Road. They delivered the pumpkins for us, and we put a pumpkin in each one of our large cement pots on all the big corners down Center Street. We put a pumpkin in each one, and wrapped some fall garland around it for some color. We did that on Saturday.”

As of Tuesday morning, “the corner of Seventh and Center, all four pumpkins were no longer in their pots. … Someone had removed them.”

“It’s just so shocking. … It’s just so sad to me that someone would think they can take them, and would take them,” Fitzpatrick said.

Fortunately, as soon as the word got out, “We had actually many offers from folks,” to replace the pumpkins, Fitzpatrick said. “The guy that actually delivered the pumpkins to us, offered to bring four more out to us. In the meantime, our good friend, Anthony DiMino, went and put four new ones out. And others then posted on our Beautification Facebook page,” including Cask + Cow and Pumpkins on the Ridge. “Really, a wonderful outpouring from the community of folks wanting to help, and thinking, ‘What a terrible thing that happened.’ ”

Sadly, “We had other people take plants down” this year, Fitzpatrick said. In front of the former Clarkson House Restaurant, “We had plants dug out from in front of there.”

She suggested, “If somebody knows who did it, they should reach out to either the village hall there, or to the police.”

Fitzpatrick said Mayor Anne Welch and the Lewiston Police Department were notified, and Center Street cameras are rolling.

Despite these acts of unkindness, Fitzpatrick said, “People are constantly tooting the horn as they drive by us, when we're out there working.” The Beautification Commission has been out in force this month, sprucing, planting and decorating around the village and in Academy Park. “They're posting nice things. It really is like a feel-good group; and we can see that a lot of people in the community are so appreciative and thankful of what we're doing.”

Lewiston Beautification group members placed seasonal pumpkins along Center Street last weekend, only to find four of the winter squash were taken overnight on Monday. (Submitted photo)