Networking: a natural function of life well-lived

On a sizeable hobby farm near Bismarck, N. Dak, an unusual family makes networking a way of life.

Suzie Pearce, her children, and their spouses live just a pumpkin’s throw from each other. Each autumn the family spends hundreds of hours at hard labor to make Papa’s Pumpkin Patch a delightful experience for their visitors.

Since 1983, Papa’s Pumpkin Patch has been open to the public on weekends from mid-September to mid-October. The 50,000 guests are each invited to make a $1 donation upon entering. The Patch displays an estimated 30,000 pumpkins, gourds, decorative corn arrangements, and other harvest-related items each year, and sells many of these items. Of the more than 25 fun activities, most are free; the rest cost a buck or two. More than 4,000 local preschool and grade school students visit the patch during weekday school hours and take home free pumpkins.

Seamless networking

To this family, networking is almost a religion, not something they “do” when they need help. In their non-Patch-related jobs, Suzie’s son and daughter, Dave and Tracy, and their spouses consistently look for people to encourage and learn from. Tracy’s nine-year-old son already has friends of all ages, nationalities, races, religions, and interests.

Over the years, the family has formed deep, resilient friendships with church groups, community nonprofit organizations, neighbors, and others. Believing that there is no limit to what can be done with enough friends, imagination, and effort, especially if everybody wins, the family makes healthy donations to more than 25 local charities and civic organizations who help out, as they’re able, during Pumpkin Patch season.

The whole point of Papa’s Pumpkin Patch, says Dave Pearce, is to “raise funds, friends, and fun.” Once you’re part of the network family, the fun’s just starting.

• Several years ago, Bismarck Special Olympics and the Pumpkin Patch were trying to find a way to help each other. The family’s idea was to contact former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, who, with a couple of his buddies, had recently built a winning trebuchet on The Learning Channel’s “Junkyard Wars” television show.
  
  Because of a network of friendships between the Governor, Special Olympics, and the Patch, he and his friends said “yes.” They built a trebuchet that flings a nine-pound pumpkin 600 feet up and out before it explodes in a stubble field. The huge attraction is operated by Special Olympics volunteers on weekends during Pumpkin Patch season. The result: higher gate counts for the Pumpkin Patch, delighted guests, and a big yearly check for Special Olympics.



• This year, October was cold and lots of pumpkins froze at night. The Patch didn’t want to sell those, but wanted to raise more “funds, friends, and fun,” so the family planned a Pumpkin Un-Parade where cars would drive, in the dark, through a long route of carved and lit pumpkins.
  
  They contacted organizations who had benefited from them in the past or were passionate about helping them raise money to help others. Phone calls to those organizations on a Monday set off a viral succession of phone calls and emails to other organizations. Many people who were contacted got their kids interested in carving pumpkins in the 30-degree weather, and the kids went online to their networks and recruited more kids. The Patch also has a great relationship with local media, several of whom visited to get the story.
  
  By Friday night, about 800 carved and lit pumpkins greeted 250 vehicles whose drivers and passengers offered freewill donations.

This family reminds us that the most successful networking is simply a natural function of living generously, hopefully, and imaginatively.

Contact Jane at JaneG@TheNationalNetWorker.com or TNNW Blog.