Boys and Girls Club welcomes newcomers to pumpkin-carving event

Making jack-o-lanterns for Halloween is always fun, but it's especially exciting when it's your first time.

Nine-year-old Jana Elshamiand her family moved to Charlottetown about six months ago from Saudi Arabia.

On Saturday, she went to the pumpkin-carving event at the Boys and Girls Club of Charlottetown.

"We're still new here so we've never carved a pumpkin before," she said."It's awesome."

It's the first of many things she's excited about for her first Halloween.

"I'm going to wear a nice costume for school and we're going to have nice activities in school."Elshami said she'salso looking forward to the candy.

Emily Rogers, 10, also decorated a pumpkin to get in the Halloween spirit.

"I really likeHalloweenbecause you're going out with some of your friends and you're trick or treating."

Carly Levy, the events coordinator with the club, said this is the first time the club has opened pumpkin carving up to the public.

"We serve49 children on a daily basis here and we wanted to do something that was geared towards their families," she said.

"Doing something fun for the family is kind of what we were hoping to do, we didn't want to do something that was scary, we wanted to do something that was fun and open to everyone."

Levy said the group received about 100 donated pumpkins from Shaw Brothers Farm. They gave extra pumpkins to families at the event, and will be decorating the leftovers with children in the program.