By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Goffstown Police Chief Mike French, never afraid to make a fool of himself for a good cause, dressed in a clown outfit for the regatta. Behind him, Mountain View Middle School Principal Fred Deppe gets those on shore excited by tossing out bags of goodies to those quick enough to catch them. (The Goffstown News/Bruce Preston)

The annual Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off and Regatta returned to Goffstown the weekend of Oct. 14 and 15, bringing thousands of visitors into town for the return of a celebrated event.

Successful though it was, the weekend’s concluding event proved less than stellar for the town’s governing body.

The selectmen’s entry in the Giant Pumpkin Regatta suffered technical problems that left it stalled at the starting line.

A rescue attempt by Main Street Program volunteers left selectmen Chairman Barbara Griffin submerged to her neck in the October waters of the Piscataquog River.

“Too bad,” Griffin said, after her boat capsized. “The boat worked fine in the warm-ups.

“The battery shorted out” when the race started, “and the rescue became very entertaining,” Griffin said of the performance of the selectmen’s Star Wars-themed entry in the pumpkin boat race.

The Goffstown Rotary Club wound up winning the pumpkin regatta, beating out nine competitors in an event that had hundreds of spectators watching from Main Street and Mill Street as boats fashioned from giant pumpkins carried competitors down a stretch of the Piscataquog River.

The pumpkin regatta marked the end to a weekend many saw as a triumphant return for the annual celebration.

Now in its sixth year, the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off and Regatta serves as the primary fundraiser for the Goffstown Main Street Program as well as the state weigh-off for the New Hampshire Giant Pumpkin Growers Association.

The idea behind the event came from resident Jim Beauchemin, a founding member of the Pumpkin Growers Association and former member of the Main Street Program’s board of directors.

Beauchemin brought the idea of holding the pumpkin growers’ annual weigh-off in Goffstown in 2000, and the idea has grown in popularity each year, Beauchemin said.

The event suffered a blow last year, when torrential rains forced a cancellation. However, organizers said this year’s event drew as many as 5,000 people to the village area.

“This is a sigh of relief for the Goffstown Main Street Program,” Beauchemin said. “A turnout like this shows we can overcome adversity.”

The giant pumpkins rolled into town on Saturday morning in a motorcade that proved one of the weekend’s main attractions.

The weigh-off itself took place later in the day, with Jim Ford of Deering taking top honors with his giant 1,060-pound gourd.

The weekend provided several other highlights, including the chance for visitors to shop and tour the town under a calm autumn sky, and for vendors to raise money through the sale of food and mementos.

“We’re trying to develop commerce in the community and revitalize the downtown area,” said Sherry Hieber, a member of the Main Street Program’s board of directors.

“This has brought in a lot of people from out of the town and the state,” Hieber said.

The Main Street Program was one of many organizations carrying out fundraising activities during the weekend. Program members sold scented pencils, or “Smencils,” for $1.25, as well as $25 raffle tickets for a week-long vacation to Disney World.

The Goffstown Grizzlies Lacrosse Club also occupied a booth on Main Street, in which 20 volunteers sold cookies, apple crisp, hamburgers and hot dogs to an eager crowd.

“We’ve had a great turnout so far,” said Carol Turgeon, the club fundraising coordinator. Turgeon’s son, Goffstown High School junior Scott, plays midfield on the lacrosse team.

Hot dogs were a particularly attractive item on Saturday, Turgeon said, with hungry visitors eventually buying up all their stock of the ballpark favorite.

Hunger also played an important role in the Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest, in which competitors fought to see who could down the most of that dessert in a two-minute timeframe.

Shelby Onstott, 10, won first place in that contest as mother Mary and sister Amber, 9, cheered her on.

“When I started it was hard to swallow, but I think I did well,” said Shelby, a fifth-grader at New Boston Central School.