MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — Pumpkins painted the pavement of Evansdale Campus Friday as more than 1,000 aspiring engineers joined the West Virginia University Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources’ 34th annual Pumpkin Drop.
Two-hundred and forty-three teams from 50 K-12 schools across West Virginia and Pennsylvania dropped a pumpkin from the top of the 11-story Engineering Sciences Building in the hopes that their unique designs would spare it a grisly fate.
Of the 47 pumpkins that survived, Team 13 from Mountaineer Middle School, comprised of 7th graders Eva Baker and Claire Patterson, was able to land their pumpkin the closest to the target—only one foot, two inches away—making them the winners of the drop and its $100 first place prize and trophy. The team had some trouble in the past, but this year, they came in for the win.
“Parachute and we cut a hole in the middle so it wouldn’t drift away, and then we put a squish mellow on the bottom so like make it bounce, and then we put pool noodles down the corners, and then we put like packaging material inside and a bunch of bubble wrap,” Eva said.
Claire said, “like problem solve and how things will work better like last year. I learned a lot from like how nothing really worked, and this year how a lot of things worked.”
Members of Mountaineer Middle School Team 13 collected their winnings from the 2023 WVU Pumpkin Drop. Shown with the winning team (from left) are Dustin Spayde, WVU Innovation Hub director, Amina Irfan, WVU ASME chapter president, Scott Wayne, associate professor, and Jason Gross, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering chair. (WVU Photo) 
During the Pumpkin Drop, teams of K-12 students design enclosures to protect pumpkins during an 11-story drop from the WVU Engineering Sciences Building. (WVU Photo/David Malecki) 
A pumpkin enclosure makes a landing near the drop zone for the 2023 Pumpkin Drop at the WVU Engineering Sciences Building. (WVU Photo/David Malecki) 
Students react to pumpkins in peril during the 2023 Pumpkin Drop at the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. (WVU Photo/David Malecki)
Although Eva and Claire are not sure if they’ll pursue a career in the math and science field, they said they had a lot of fun and will continue to come back every year.
The event was sponsored by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering along with the WVU chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, with event proceeds going to Ronald McDonald House Morgantown.
