Student Council has named senior Michael Martin as the winner of its pumpkin carving contest, after encouraging students to send in pictures of their most creative and unique carved designs.

“Our goal was to have a fun activity that both virtual and face to face kids could participate in.” senior Franny Trezza, StuCo president said. “We had a panel of judges that looked at creativity and complexity to determine the winner.”

Competing against 15 other entries, Martin’s winning design wasn’t originally created for the contest, 

“My friends and I have a thing where we meet up every year, carve pumpkins, and watch a Halloween themed movie,” Martin said. “Later that night I was looking at my design, and was inspired to enter my pumpkin into the contest. Honestly, I was super surprised when I won. I didn’t think that a ton of people had entered, but I still didn’t think that I would win.”

Martin decided to take a less traditional path for the concept of his design. 

“Pumpkin carving is such a big thing, and everyone always decides to do Halloween-related designs,” he said. “But I thought that it didn’t have to be scary, so I decided to challenge myself by doing something intricate and different. Essentially, it is a bird sitting on a branch with bunches of leaves and branches surrounding it.”