Pumpkin sale to benefit adopting families

The Alpine Farms pumpkin sale returns this weekend for its third year, and will once again support a family going through the adoption process.

This year, however, three families will receive funds from the sale.

Derek and Rushton Waltchack and their children started the annual pumpkin sale in 2014.

The year before, the family had purchased a farm in Alpine, Alabama to teach the kids about farming and hard work. When the family decided to begin the process of adopting a child from China in 2014, they got the idea to offset the cost by growing pumpkins at the farm and selling them to their neighbors.

The adoption process can cost upwards of $40,000, Derek said, and in the first sale the family raised nearly half that over two days.

Last year, the Waltchacks decided to continue the project and support two other families going through the adoption process.

For this year's sale, three families will get proceeds from the pumpkin sale: the Thompsons and the Barleys in Vestavia, and the Giffins in Homewood.

This year, the sale will take place over three days, Friday Sept. 30 through Sunday, Oct. 2. Scout Square off of Highway 31 will be filled with around 4,000 pumpkins from Alpine Farms, as well as local vendors throughout the weekend.

The sale will take place:

Friday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Saturday: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Sunday: 1 - 4 p.m.

For more information about vendors and Alpine Farms, visit their Facebook page.