A 1,500-Pound Pumpkin and a Dream
By Corey Becker and Aurora YinJust days before the Charles River opened up to the bevy of boats participating in this year’s Head of the Charles Regatta, a very different sort of watercraft sailed across it.
Early one day this fall, Benjamin Chang ’23-’24, joined by a group of friends, starts the day by, picking up a 1,500 lb. pumpkin from the fields of a renowned giant pumpkin farmer in New Hampshire. The group carts their prize back to campus — no small feat. Chang has long had the dream to sail a giant pumpkin down the Charles. And soon, his long-time dream would become a reality.
Chang, a former Crimson editor, used the giant pumpkin boat as a fundraiser for the Harvard College OpenBio Laboratory, a student-run makerspace for biological research that he is the co-president of. Chang says the pumpkin project, which is an example of selective breeding, is “all about spreading a sense of wonder about biology, and helping people reimagine what is possible with biology,” a sentiment he reiterates often. Offering rides in the pumpkin for just $20, Chang estimated the day’s activities brought in $500 for OpenBio. The group receives several hundred more dollars in donations in the following days.
Izzy M. Goodchild-Michelman ’23, co-president of OpenBio and co-organizer of the pumpkin team, notes that since she met him two years ago, she “can’t really remember a time when Ben wasn’t like, ‘I’m getting a pumpkin onto the river.’”
To his credit, Chang has been persistent. Last year, he applied for funding from Adams House. According to Goodchild-Michelman, Adams usually funds projects for up to $300. The pumpkin would cost at least $500.
Over the last year, Chang slowly raised funds to realize his dream, finally raising enough money after a professor also chipped in. The pumpkin was planted in April, flowered in June, and grew up to 50 lbs. per day.
But about two weeks ago, Chang’s plans were thrown into limbo — getting the pumpkin to Harvard would be doable, but there would be no way to set sail if he couldn’t remove it from the truck bed. He needed a forklift. In a plea for help on Reddit, Chang sought assistance. This call-to-arms was heard loud and clear, as local residents (and new friends) Tim Myra and Matt Medeiros enthusiastically enlisted, volunteering a forklift.
With the pumpkin sitting imposingly on the bank of the Charles, Chang and his team descended upon their mammoth with knives and shovels, hollowing out nearly 200 lbs. of pulp. Filling bags with the pumpkin’s innards, they collected every seed to return to the pumpkin’s farmer, to safeguard the seeds the farmer has bred over many years.
But soon, disaster struck: a huge crack opened up near the bottom of what would be the hull. It did not break through the pumpkin’s skin, but suddenly the future of the long-awaited voyage was thrown into question. Still determined to set sail, Chang’s team pushed on.
With the pumpkin hollowed, it was time to bring it to the river. The next challenge was how to move the humongous gourd, which clocked in at the weight of a grand piano or an American bison, 30 odd ft. into the water.
We waited with bated breath. In a moment of exasperation, Chang suggested hacking the pumpkin in half. But eventually the team landed on a surprisingly effective technique: running around the pumpkin, they spun it in clockwise and counterclockwise circles, inching it towards the water, being careful not to widen the crack in the hull.
As a growing crowd of spectators gathered, Chang and his crew inched his prized squash into the waters of the Charles. Wading through the rocky enclave of the riverbank up to their knees in water, Chang pushed onwards. Smiling wearily, he says, “I didn’t know this was going to be so tiring.” By now a second crowd had gathered on Weeks Bridge, and as the pumpkin floated out to deeper water, the pumpkin team smiled: the crack had held. The pumpkin was floating.
Chang prepared for his voyage. Matt Shearer, a reporter from WBZ News, who helped with the transport of the pumpkin, handed Chang a captain’s hat. Also a certified lifeguard, Shearer joined alongside Chang in a kayak. Chang crawled into the pumpkin, careful not to capsize his vessel or widen the crack beneath his feet. Finding his bearings, he grabbed a paddle and took his boat for a test ride.
Chang emphasizes that “it truly took a village” to help bring his dream into reality. Friends, enthusiastic strangers, and an extraordinarily helpful news reporter came together to make this happen.
After handing it off to the next rider, he reflected on his first journey. Referencing “Cinderella,” he jokes: “Now we don’t need magic to make pumpkins into these creatures, we can use human ingenuity.”
He notes that in the last 20 years, the biggest pumpkins have grown to almost twice the size of what they used to be, all thanks to biological engineering. “If in 20 years we can make the pumpkin twice the size, imagine what we can do with biology in the next 20 years,” he says.
As the afternoon gives way to the evening, Chang takes over one last time. Paddling over to Allston, he marks one item off his bucket list. Shivering but beaming with delight, he remarks: “It was like being baptized by a pumpkin.”
