Preston Schlief, 11, poses with his racer along with Makerspace volunteer Tyler Swank, who assisted racers with last-minute upgrades before Saturday’s Deb Mann Memorial Downhill Pumpkin Races. Schlief won an award for most creative pumpkin. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo)

By GARRETT NEESE

Houghton Daily

Mining Gazette

HANCOCK — The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

But the most fun distance between two points involves detours into hay bales — or at times, a competitor’s car — as people on the sidelines cheer.

It got traversed numerous times by a number of creatively decorated competitors Saturday at the second annual Deb Mann Memorial Downhill Pumpkin Races in Hancock.

The races are organized by Keweenaw Community Alliance for Progressive Education and the Make It UP! Makerspace.

CAPE had been brainstorming ideas as a way to pay tribute to Deb Mann, the late Hancock downtown development director, after her death in 2022. CAPE’s manager, Anna Sanchez, came to Executive Director Susan Nielsen with the idea of pumpkin racing.

The concept was “just crazy enough for the Keweenaw,” Nielsen recalled.

“That combination of getting kids with hands-on activities, getting the community together to have fun, and then honoring a great person just all come together,” she said.

Proceeds from the race go to CAPE and the Deb Mann Memorial Scholarship, which is given to a high school senior who demonstrates exemplary work in community service and volunteerism.

This year’s field improved on last year’s number of 10 to 12. The heats were split into four categories: children, teens/adults, families and the “cheater’s bracket,” for non-standard cars that were too creative not to be given a chance to show what they could do.

The Makerspace was open to help racers make tweaks to their car ahead of Saturday’s event.

James Metiva of Boston Location was helping out his daughter Sedalia, 4. Her older brothers had been working on their own cars when he found out she was also interested in the race.

“She wants to join, so we’re going to make sure she can have something to do,” he said. “We really like the Makerspace, too. This is a really good place for kids to come and do some kind of tinkering, messing around.”

She’d put wheels on the pumpkin herself; after it had trouble rolling, James was at work adjusting the angles and replacing the off-road wheels with borrowed ones from the Makerspace that would work better on the road surface.

“This is a good outlet for dad’s interest in motor sports and the kids doing something creative,” said James, a mechanic by trade. “It’s a cross-section of our interest in motor sports and gardening.”

Before the first starter flag had been waved Saturday, Metiva was already thinking about ways to improve the car, or the pumpkin itself, for next year’s race.

Saturday’s 100-foot course sloped down Ryan Street, adjacent to Quincy Green. When cars collided or veered off, alert volunteers came over to set them back on the right path.

Preston Schlief, 11, won for most creative design for the second year in a row. Last year’s was a Animatronic design inspired by the film “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” This year, inspired by the aerodynamic look of the pumpkin, was a hot dog, complete with bun cushions and feathery lengths of yellow and red as stand-ins for ketchup and mustard.

“It was destined, because it looks exactly like a weenie,” he said.

He was also more hopeful about this year’s car, which had more space between the bottom of the pumpkin and the ground.

Preston’s favorite part of the event is the competition. His mother, Katie Schlief, enjoys “seeing all the fun faces and what people come up with with their creative minds.”

First through third places received a variety of prizes. Reuben Metiva, 8, who won first place in the children’s division for his “Mud Blaster” racer, won $100 in cash and several gifts and gift certificates from local businesses.

As Reuben was being interviewed, the Metiva family heard an announcement of another prize given to the family nontraditional “tiny racer” — a pumpkin only slightly taller than its wheels, taken from a 1940s era Erector set. It had been the brainchild of James’ youngest daughter, he said.

“That’s pretty awesome,” he said. “She’s two years old.”

This year’s race coincided with Make a Difference Day. Many Michigan Technological University students, volunteers and members of other youth organizations were on hand to help out, Nielsen said.

Even if they didn’t have a pumpkin to enter, kids could also paint pumpkins or run on an obstacle course on Quincy Green. Directly before the race, the crowd headed over to Ryan Street, where the Hancock Fire Department held a ceremonial pumpkin drop.

Next year’s event will be even bigger, Nielsen said. Plans are already afoot for a food truck, and possibly live music.

“I don’t know where it’s going to head, but we just think it’s a really fun way to get people out in the fall,” she said.