A Harvard University student crossed the river in a giant pumpkin in an effort to raise money for a bio-engineering laboratory.
Benjamin Chang, a senior at the Ivy League university, described being able to get in his 1,500-pound pumpkin on the Charles River as “so much fun” despite the “roadblocks” along the way, according to 6ABC.
This came days after Chang had posted a Reddit post in early October asking if he could borrow a forklift for the thousand-pound pumpkin in order to accomplish his “life’s dream to row in a giant pumpkin.”
“There’s been so many roadblocks that have happened, and to actually be in the water in a giant pumpkin was so much fun,” Chang told the outlet.
Good gourd! 🎃 Harvard student Benjamin Chang says he achieved a longtime dream when he rowed across the Charles River in Massachusetts in a 1,500-pound giant pumpkin to raise money for the student-led bio-engineering lab. https://t.co/d28D0xmz6l pic.twitter.com/UsyWAMbxCq
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) October 17, 2023
Chang and some of his friends took the giant pumpkin out on Saturday morning and began using a knife and a shovel to carve out a space for him to sit inside of the pumpkin, according to the outlet.
The group started the journey on the Cambridge side of the Charles River and made their way to the Boston side of the river and then back.
People who wanted a chance to row inside the pumpkin made donations which went towards raising money for Harvard’s student-led bio-engineering lab, according to the outlet.
“It was also so much fun to let other people try this as well,” Chang added. “Seeing how excited and how strange of a feeling it was for other people to be inside this pumpkin was just as fun for me as being in it myself.”
Chang’s journey down the Charles River comes days after Steve Kueny from Missouri broke a Guinness World Record for completing a 38-mile trek down a river in a 1,208-pound pumpkin boat.
IJR reached out to Chang for a statement but did not receive a response by the time of publication.