Teal pumpkins for a safer holiday

PANAMA CITY BEACH – Parents at Patronis Elementary School are on a mission to improve the lives of food-allergic children and their families in Bay County.

Kirsten Sears and Jerri Weinmann founded the Food Allergy Support Group of Bay County about two months ago after a mutual friend introduced them. Both have children with food allergies including milk, tree nuts, mustard and eggs.

“We both wanted to start a support group, and we were at the same school, but we didn’t know each other,” Sears said.

Sunday afternoon, the support group hosted a Teal Pumpkin Party at Rick Seltzer Playground in Panama City Beach to raise awareness of food-allergic children on Halloween. Participants covered pumpkins in teal paint and glitter. The pumpkins will be displayed on front porches on Halloween along with a sign reading “We support kids with food allergies. Our teal pumpkin means that we have non-food treats available!”

“You can spend a couple dollars and buy, you know, little beads or stickers. It doesn’t cost much at all,” Sears said of the treats.

A mother in Tennessee started the teal pumpkin trend two years ago, Sears said, and word of the idea spread over Facebook to other families of children with allergies.

Sears described taking her daughters out trick-or-treating and having to throw out the candy at the end of the night in favor of treats she could be sure were safe. Non-food treats would make Halloween safer for her children. For the same reason, Sunday’s party was food-free, with kids playing in a bounce house, getting their faces painted and painting pumpkins, of course.

“If we had pizza, [my daughter] can’t touch anything that has been touched by cheesy hands. And all our kids have different allergies.” Sears said.

Weinmann called the support a group a “wonderful help,” and said that she and the other parents often swap recipes.

“We’d like to reach out to families of children with allergies at other schools and have our group in Bay County and we can all support one another,” Weinmann said.

The group plans to hold play dates as the weather cools and put together an allergen-friendly cookbook. They also hope to make the Teal Pumpkin Party an annual event.

For more information, contact Kirsten Sears at 850-276-2244 or BayCountyFoodAllergy@gmail.com or find Food Allergy Support Group of Bay County on Facebook.