MORTON (25News Now) – Most pumpkins you see every fall are orange, but this pumpkin isn’t orange. Several farms are pink at Ackerman Family Farms in Morton.
John Ackerman spent a season growing “Porcelain Doll Pink Pumpkin” and is currently selling them. A portion of the proceeds will be used to fund breast cancer research.
“There’s also an awareness issue here: Can we do something that will catch someone’s attention and make them think this is the month to worry about this disease?” Ackerman said.
Ackerman said he gets his seeds from the Pink Pumpkin Patch Foundation, which started growing the unusual pumpkin about five years ago.
Each pumpkin costs $7. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Susan G. Komen are the two charities receiving funding.
“We’ve seen so many improvements in my lifetime, and that’s because of a lot of work and effort that people have put in,” Ackerman said. “I think if we want to find a cure, we need to raise money and support people to find a cure.”
While the idea of a pink pumpkin is impressive, Ackerman said what’s even more impressive is how much this initiative means to breast cancer survivors like Donna Alpers.
“I had a double mastectomy, had 24 lymph nodes removed, and went through the toughest chemotherapy I’ve ever had,” Alpers said.
Alpers was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in 2015. She used to hate the color pink, but now she loves it the most.
Alpers said that after feeling like she wouldn’t survive and losing friends she had made through the fight, she felt participating in charity work like this was the journey she needed to take.
“I think supporting things like this is what I’m supposed to do for a reason. I’m supposed to be helping find a cure someday,” Alpers said.
Alpers took out a total of six pumpkins. Four were for her and her husband, and two were for each of her children, who she said have been cooperative throughout.
She plans to return next year to support the same cause.
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