9 Good News Stories: The Halloween 2022 Special Edition

ACROSS AMERICA — Charlie Pigott never intended to have a 1,000-pound pumpkin sitting on his Eighth Avenue stoop in the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, but that's how life goes sometimes.

“This is a replacement pumpkin,” Pigott told Patch. “The pumpkin we had originally reserved cracked, so they asked if we wanted this one.”

Why the heck not? Big pumpkins are a Halloween fixture on the Brooklyn dad’s stoop — last year’s weighed in at 600 pounds.

Pigott’s son, George, spied the beast at a Pennsylvania pumpkin farm and wasn’t sure his dad comprehended the sheer girth of the thing when he told him to go ahead and buy it. “You can’t,” Pigott recalled his son telling him. “It’s too big.”

Getting the gargantuan pumpkin back to the city and hoisting it to the stoop of Pigott’s brownstone required engineering, ingenuity and finagling, a team of 10 and some yelling. People love “the accidental great pumpkin,” and for Pigott, there’s no going back. “It’s the neighborhood’s pumpkin,” he said, “everybody comes, every age. People really, really dig it.” » By Peter Senzamici for Park Slope (New York) Patch

‘Imagine How Much Scarier It Can Be’

Jim and Laura Granelli can be counted upon to decorate their Neptune Township, New Jersey, home for Halloween. After Jim was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago, they channeled their Halloween spirit into a display that raises money for pediatric cancer research. “Having dealt with cancer and the fear I had, I can only imagine how much scarier it can be for a child,” Jim said. So far, the couple have raised $10,000 for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. » By Carly Baldwin for Manasquan-Belmar (New Jersey) Patch

Haunting For Good

Most people find some sounds — fingernails on a chalkboard or silverware scratching a plate, for example — aggravating or even irritating. But for people like 14-year-old Paige Hesser and others affected by misophonia, sounds that are benign for many can cause extreme reactions, including anger, aggression and anxiety. The Manhattan, Illinois, teen is spreading awareness about the under-studied condition, both at her school, where she’s talked openly about misophonia, and through her family’s well-known displays for Halloween and other holidays. This year, visitors can donate to a non-profit group called soQuiet, which uses donations to provide grants to graduate students who are working to conduct more research on misophonia. » By TJ Kremer III for Manhattan (Illinois) Patch

Grateful Hearts

It’s been a long haul for the Cotter family of Wading River, New York. Brian and Ashley Cotter’s 1-year-old son, Buddy, is thriving after a heart transplant. His sister, Ruby, received a heart transplant last Christmas. The siblings, along with their parents, also battled COVID-19. Through it all, they never lost faith they would get through it. “We are always reminded of tough times and grateful for the good ones,” Ashley said. » By Lisa Finn for Riverhead (New York) Patch

‘Brave Face’

With her daughter Caroline Crocker, Fairfax City, Virginia, resident Meta Evenbly returned to a small fishing village in the Netherlands where she witnessed her first murder. She was 6 at the time, and her father was involved in the Nazi resistance, which exposed the family to fear Crocker said “has lasted her whole life.” Together, they wrote down the stories, collecting them in a book, “Brave Face: The Inspiring WWII Memoir of a Dutch/German Child.” Evenbly told her daughter that the experiences she had kept hidden away since childhood because she feared no one would believe her was cathartic, and that finally, she felt “validated.” » By Michael O’Connell for Fairfax City (Virginia) Patch

Hear What This Athlete Has To Say

Erin Cembrale, of Oyster Bay, New York, was never expected to talk. But the Long Island woman has plenty to say as she heads to world championships with the rest of the U.S. Deaf Soccer Women’s National Team. She’s also a finalist in the Oticon 2022 Focus on People Awards, and if she wins, she’s going to give the prize money to a nearby school for the deaf for children in need of hearing aids. When Cembrale was growing up, she didn’t have an adult role model with hearing loss. “I want to be a face to kids to show we are the same as anyone else,” she told Patch. “We can still play a sport we love, play for our country.” » By Peggy Hoey Spellman for Oyster Bay (New York) Patch

‘I Just Love Doing It’

At the intersection of artistic and altruism is 10-year-old Julianna Tand, of North Merrick, New York, who has turned her clay figurines into a successful charitable endeavor. Over the past two years, she has raised more than $8,300 for the Long Island chapter of the Ronald McDonald House. Her ticket to national fame was a mini sculpture replicating the meme that she raffled off for $3,000, but she also did a “Golden Girls” sculpture after Betty White. The satisfaction of helping is her reward. “I just love doing it because I know that I’m helping them,” Julianna told Patch. » By Jerry Barmash for Merrick (New York) Patch

Haunting Beauty Amid The Rubble

New Jersey urban explorer and photojournalist Wheeler Antabanez has been documenting an abandoned railway line before it’s destroyed for re-development. Antabanez says he found a hidden beauty amid the haunting rubble, all chronicled in a book, “Walking the old Boonton Line: A Photographic Journey on the Abandoned Rails of New Jersey,” released earlier this month and a movie on it premieres the night before Halloween. » By Eric Kiefer for Montclair (New Jersey) Patch

Parting Shot

Every year, zoos around the country hand out pumpkins to their animals. Reaction among the species varied at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, where the leopards treated the pumpkin like a ball, the rhinos immediately recognized a snack, and the lemurs didn’t know quite what to make of the gourds, opting to run off and play instead. The gorillas, though, sentient beings that they are, seemed to deliberate how best to get inside the pumpkins. » By D’Ann Lawrence White for Tampa (Florida) Patch

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