Harvest Algoma is getting a very special donation of pumpkins this year

Nearly a dozen pumpkins are being donated to United Way’s Harvest Algoma this weekend as the result of a family memorial. 

Dave and Sheena Cress usually attend the grave of their daughter, Marli Jean Eileen Cress, at Greenwood Cemetary in order to place a pumpkin there for their daughter's Oct. 29 birthday on a yearly basis.  

The couple have since relocated to Sudbury for employment opportunities, and couldn’t make it back to the Sault this year.  

“Every year they go there on her birthday and put a pumpkin there, but they couldn’t make it this year,” said Janet Anderson, who is the mother of Sheena Cress and grandmother to Marli Jean Eileen. “So they put out a request for someone to go and put the pumpkins on.” 

Friends and family answered the call, placing 11 pumpkins - Marli Jean Eileen would’ve turned 11 this year - at her grave. 

Anderson says her granddaughter was born with Pierre Robin syndrome and Pontocerebellar Hypoplasia Type 1 (PCH1) and died in 2008 due to a MRSA infection. 

Marli Jean Eileen was just over a month old at the time of her death. 

Anderson says that she and her daughter were overwhelmed by the support shown by family and friends for this year’s memorial. 

“I thought it was excellent. Oh wow. My daughter, she was emotional,” she told SooToday. 

Anderson and her husband Jeff dropped off the donation of pumpkins to Harvest Algoma Saturday. 

She’s now calling on the community to do the same with their gourds. 

“I just basically want everybody to donate the pumpkins and get behind this whole cause for the United Way,” Anderson said. 

Pumpkins intended for United Way’s Harvest Algoma can be dropped off at the marked GFL bin situated at the Cambrian Mall over the weekend.