Pumpkin patch driven by 'community' effort

Mitkof Island is no longer without a pumpkin patch.

Bennett McGrath was tired of buying pumpkins at a grocery store, so she orchestrated a patch, and it opened last weekend.

Last year McGrath took her children along with some friends to Wrangell just to visit the pumpkin patch there. They made a vacation out of it – visited the bowling alley, got a hotel, explored more of downtown – but the premise was pumpkins. McGrath spent a few hundred dollars on boating and lodging just to get there.

"I was like 'that's it I'm doing this,'" McGrath said. "I grew up with pumpkin patches, and I am kind of o...