The third annual Library Pumpkin Painting competition was held Thursday, Oct. 30 for voting, and votes were tallied up that Friday, Oct. 31. The contest is an opportunity for students to express themselves through holiday crafts like pumpkin carving and painting pumpkins.
Junior Bella Alvarenga won ‘Best Overall Pumpkin’ with her Pibble Pumpkin. “I wanted to participate in this contest because I really love art, making things, and crafts,” Alvarenga said. “I thought it would be something fun to do.”
Alvarenga’s inspiration for her pumpkin was based on the popular meme ‘Pibble’ going viral on the internet. The ‘Pibble’ meme is a small baby pit bull dog who loves belly washes and often uses the term “I am Pibble, wash my belly.” The term was originated to create a friendly nickname for pit bulls.
“I found ‘Pibble’ on TikTok,” Alvarenga said. “He’s just so adorable because he’s a dog and he’s a little chunky. It reminds me of my little cousin [because he] is also obsessed with Pibble. Even though I’m scared of dogs, I’m not scared of ‘Pibble’. I love Pibble so much and I’m always saying “Wash my belly, clean my belly” because of Pibble.”
With different varieties of pumpkins to choose from, voting on one pumpkin can be difficult.
“It was hard for me to pick the best overall pumpkin because everyone went all out this year and added so much detail to their pumpkins.” Senior Marcela Salcedo said. “I ended up choosing my friend’s pumpkin, I thought it was really cool with the melting face detail.”
It takes time and effort to craft the pumpkins, especially in contestants entering the competition with the mindset to win.
“My process of making my pumpkin was I got a pumpkin from the library and bought air-dry clay from the store,” Alvarenga said. “I sculpted/molded out my design and let it sit out for a day. [Then I] began to add details such as the face and spots on the ears, legs/paws.”
The library sent out an email to all students containing the winners of the different titles. Alvarenga’s ‘Pibble’ Pumpkin was titled the overall best pumpkin winner.
“I didn’t think I was going to win so I was really shocked and overjoyed when I read the email telling me I won.” Alvarenga said. “I had some self doubt because I saw the other pumpkins that were also running and they were so detailed and realistic. They were creative [and] it was just a hard competition. Then, I started promoting myself and I told them to vote for me.”
Congratulations to Bella Alvarenga and her hard work with her ‘Pibble’ Pumpkin!
