On Tuesday, Oct. 27, the Pfeiffer University softball team once again delighted us with their annual pumpkin painting submissions.

You can check out their works of art and more on each decorated entry by clicking HERE.

You can also scroll to the bottom of the page to see each entry as well.

The team members were broken into five groups and each chose a theme to be creative with in taking a basic pumpkin and making it a brilliant work of art.

We extended to the softball community the chance to select your favorite and we received hundreds of responses!

In the last 10 days, the votes poured in and one entry was the run-away winner… can you guess which one it was?

Scroll down and you’ll find out which masterpiece go the most votes…

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… and the winner is… Dolly Parton!

*****

Amazingly, this tribute to the recently-passed superstar singer and actress received 91% of the vote!!!

Coming in second was Witch’s Cauldron.

Our congrats to the painters/designers/artists and sometimes softball players (haha!) on Team Dolly Parton which included:

• Camryn Kaminski, a junior UT from Monroe, N.C.
• Heather Vaughn, a sophomore UT from El Whitney, N.C.
• Makenzi Pyatte, a freshman UT from Taylorsville, N.c.
• Chloe Adams, a freshman RHP/UT from Walnut Cover, N.C.

We’ll leave you with a sampling of the comments sent in with the votes that were emailed to us (names removed to keep anonymity):

• I vote for the Dolly Parton pumpkin. Keeping the Dolly legacy alive is a life time goal and this pumpkin is just the start!
• Love Dolly so creative!
• I vote for Dolly! I feel as if she had a lot of detail to her and why not vote for Dolly! 
• My favorite is Dolly, not just because it is so creative and festive, but because it represents Dolly is so many ways! She is such a legend and I loved her representation!
• I love Dolly and all of the legacies she left.  I can wait to see what kind of legacy our softball girls will create at Pfeiffer!!
• Voting for the Dolly pumpkin all the way!!
• I vote for Dolly. Who doesn’t love Dolly. She was a one of a kind woman!
• My vote is for Dolly Parton because she’s a legend no matter what she’s made of!
• I vote for Dolly Parton!  I’m a big fan of hers and I love seeing her legacy being kept alive!
• My favorite pumpkin is the Dolly Parton one because I love the remembrance of her and I love her music!! 
• I choose the Dolly Parton pumpkin due to her passing this year I thought it was a great tribute and a wonderful idea.
• I would like to vote for the Witch’s Cauldron pumpkin please, I think they did a wonderful job!
• I vote for the Witches Cauldron #1 because it looks so realistic with the legs sticking out 🧙
• My favorite is the Witch’s Cauldron. Love the bright green and purples. It has the nostalgic feel of Halloween. It takes me back to all the fun memories of my childhood trick or treating with my friends and family.  
• I think the best pumpkin is the Grandma pumpkin!
• I vote for the Granny! Love the cotton balls as her hair and glasses!
• I love the Darla pumpkin, it’s something the kids can relate to!
• The Darla pumpkin is cute and I love how they did the braces on it and the addition of the gold fish.
• The cactus is my favorite with all the flowers coming out of it.
• I vote for the cactus… the green color of the cactus/pumpkin really pops with the black and white polka dotted pot holder.
• I vote for them all because they’re all great and shows how talented softball players can be off the field too!

*****

Here’s a look at each of the five contest entries—which are ALL fantastic, we think you’ll agree!—and a note from one of the entrant’s creators as to the thought process that went into each clever design…

Cactus

“When we were searching for a design for our pumpkin, we wanted to find a design that was different from the others.”

“Personally, I love cacti. My grandpa used to buy me them all the time so getting to do a cactus for our design meant a lot to me.”

“Getting to do this pumpkin contest every year brings the team so much closer. It gives us an opportunity to spend quality time together off the field and prioritize building friendships.”

“With midterms going on this was the perfect escape. Our team is very competitive, and this was another way for us to compete in a fun and friendly way. I look forward to this competition every year!”

—Brooke Piper (3B/OF, Sr.)

***** 

Darla

“We chose Darla and Nemo as our pumpkin because we all are Disney fans. We thought it would be the perfect pumpkin!”

“Getting to meet with one another outside of practice was a great way to bond with the girls. We were able to create, laugh, and learn more about each other during this process. We even got a real fish!”

“It was such a fun experience and a great way to be with the girls off the field.”

— Landry Stewart (OF/UT, Sr.)  

*****

Dolly Parton

“Decorating Dolly Parton helped my team off the field because we got to come together with a common interest.”

“We chose Dolly Parton because we thought creating her as a pumpkin was a fun way to carry on her legacy.”

— Camryn Kaminski (UT, Jr.) 

*****

Grandma

“We chose the granny to paint because it was a fun idea that we all were able to input ideas on for our pumpkin.”

“It helped us bond off of the field by allowing us to get together for a couple days and talk about things outside of softball.”

“We all contributed to the components of the pumpkin and worked together on it while being able to get closer as people all while bringing our idea to life. “

— Ivye Francis (UT, So.) 

*****

Witch’s Cauldron

“We chose to make a witch’s cauldron out of our pumpkin because we wanted to create something fun and festive for the Halloween season.”

“We worked together and helped share ideas with each other to help create our pumpkin.”

“Overall, this helped us bond as a team, communicate better, and get to know each other more. In the end, we had fun and created something we were all proud of!”

— Makinna Swaim (DP/RHP, Jr.)