Historic Hudson Valley has freshly posted on YouTube a two-minute Blaze clip using footage that was shot last year. Take a look at it and let me know what you think.

Perhaps the video will inspire you to come to Blaze and create your own. Need more inspiration? How about the chance to win a 42-inch HD flat-screen plasma television, an HD DVD player, and a collection of classic Halloween movies? Yea, I thought so. Read on.

The Blaze YouTube Video Contest is open to all and it's free to enter. You need to visit Blaze once (or twice, thrice, whatever) during the first two weekends, either Oct. 5-7 or 11-14. Bring your video capturing device (even a high-tech cellphone might suffice) and, well, capture some video. Massage it in your favorite video editing software and upload it to YouTube by Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m. Full details can be found by clicking here. Make sure, for example, you've got the tags right and that you focus on the contest's mission: capture the excitement and creativity of Blaze.

Oh, and make sure you leave your tripod at home. Part of the fun is trying to capture good scenes without skewering other people's feet (or your own).

Examples of contest entries will be posted here as they propagate YouTube. So even if you don't win you'll get the chance to have your work viewed (and perhaps reviewed, perhaps even kindly) by legions of rabid Blaze Bloggers.

I recently unearthed yet another video on YouTube featuring The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze 2006. This one is culled from a news report that appeared on RNN-TV, but it doesn't have any call letters or text, just the video feed. Nonetheless, it's worth a viewing just to catch a glimpse of the event's creative director sporting a fab (and fitting) shade of orange.

Enjoy!

Historic Hudson Valley is by no means a tiny sprout of an operation, but staging an event like The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze poses manpower-related challenges. Imagine just the volume of scooping, lighting, re-scooping, and re-lighting alone! Blaze organizers tell me extra hands are essential and very much welcome. Last year, nearly 600(!) kind-hearted, pumpkin-loving souls — many representing local organizations and schools — donated precious time to the event.

Cheryl Bernstein of Van Cortlandt Manor told the Blaze Blog that Westchester ARC and local girl scout troops were particularly indispensable. “ARC was instrumental,” she said, “And if the Girl Scouts didn’t help, we wouldn’t have gotten it all done.”

Forty clients and five paid staff members of Westchester ARC spent six days helping scoop pumpkins for about five hours each day. That’s a lotta pulp and a lotta seeds. In addition, roughly 30 ARC volunteers were on site scooping at least two days each week before the event kicked off.

The Girl Scouts of Westchester Putnam were represented by 38 troops, who helped scoop and light pumpkins. Many brought siblings and parents to help.

Three troops from the Westchester-Putnam Council Boy Scouts scooped (as did two troops of Cub Scouts), and two troops helped light the pumpkins.

Thirty-five folks from Pace University helped light pumpkins for three hours over three nights. In addition, 15 people scooped for four hours over two days.

Students from several local schools pitched in. From Croton-Harmon High School, 15 students scooped and 20 students helped light pumpkins. From Ossining High School, 20 students scooped and 10 helped light. And from John Jay Middle School, 48 students, four teachers, and four parents helped light pumpkins.

Shown at left helping out last year are Katy Sackman, Caroline Acevedo, and Ellie Conti of John Jay Middle School, along with Nancy Errico of Van Cortlandt Manor (yes, she’s the one in the bonnet). The other image shows Ethan Cohen, Jake Wasik, Grant Gallagher, and Kyle Ogren, also of John Jay Middle School.

Other volunteers included Blaze devotees who were thrilled by the event in 2005 and wanted to lend a hand, friends of Van Cortlandt Manor employees, parents of children who had visited Van Cortlandt Manor for school programs, Historic Hudson Valley members, families of event sponsors, teachers attending Teachers Institute programs at Van Cortlandt Manor, staff from other Historic Hudson Valley sites, and people who saw a poster around town and couldn’t resist.

So what didit all add up to? There were 250 volunteers lighting pumpkins, 270 scooping pumpkins, and 60 volunteers working at the event in various roles.

Want to get involved with Blaze ’07? E-mail Cheryl Bernstein or call her at 914-271-8981, Ext. 10. Tell her BlazeBlogger sent ya…

Take 3,000 hand-carved pumpkins, mix them with "Werewolves of London" being covered by The Grateful Dead, spin the images this way and that, and you have the beginnings of a clever YouTube video, as Tim Duquette shows us.

No dancing bears but there are dancing skeletons.

Personally, I prefer Warren Zevon's classic, but the Dead do have a certain charm. Pumpkins, of course, are always charming. Check it out and let me know what ya think.

Nothing gets us more excited about the coming 2007 Blaze than watching footage from last year's event. Thanks to YouTube, viewers from across the globe can relive (or live) the experience. Here's one excellent example we uncovered. Long live pumpkins!

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