I was happy to donate my time to the annual Ghoulish Guardians Pumpkin Carving Contest at Pembroke Pines Community Garden. The first year, more than 30 people from the nonprofit Circle of Friends & Stars painted unique versions of Halloween icons. The second year also drew a crowd and free pumpkins were available to those wanting to carve the jack-o’-lanterns.

Pembroke Pines is a city not only dedicated to arts and culture, but to making events accessible and affordable to the public. With this in mind there are numerous events to volunteer and give back. For Ghoulish Guardians I designed the images for the invitations and volunteered the day of the event to lend a helping hand and judge the competition. Even as an expert, it was tough to decide, I think everyone was a winner as we all had so much fun.

This was another opportunity as an artist to be out in the community making a difference.