It's not the thing you fling, it's the fling itself

Hurling pumpkins hundreds of feet via catapult is cool. Winning a parks award for it is even cooler.

The 2010 Michigan Recreation & Park Association Innovative Park Resource Award not only celebrates Saline's inventive public art project... it recognizes our primal need to see things go splat


Excerpt:

"Built out of all recycled materials, the launcher stands at least 7 feet tall, Corfman said. The base measures 4 feet by 4 feet.

“It’s made out of scrap metal we had around the shop and weighs about 50 pounds,” he said.

Once challenged with the idea, he said, he used his engineering skills and made the launcher in an afternoon.

“The ingenious design allows pumpkins (and other such items as water balloons and paint balloons) to be launched over 100 feet,” Scruggs said.

Carla Scruggs, Bryan Corfman and Sunshine Lambert, from left, show off the Innovative Park Resource Award won by Saline Parks and Recreation for the city's pumpkin launcher during a recent City Council meeting."

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