Our mission is to help local families affected by breast cancer, by assisting with basic daily needs in the form of gift cards and services. We also hope to encourage, empower and inspire our community, and the families within it, through our efforts.

We would like to thank everyone for your incredible and continous support of the Pink Pumpkin Run. We are thrilled to be organizing our ELEVENTH annual run in downtown Hartford on October 4th. Live Music, Food, Vendors, Family-Friendly Activities and so much more!

Our Board of Directors:

• Diane Mayer - President

• Carly Shipley - Vice President/Public Spokeperson

• Laura Steger - Treasurer

• Leah Nagel - Secretary

• Linda Mehlum - Board Member/Support Group Leader

• Mary Black - Board Member

• Lynette Voss - Board Member

• Leddy Luebke - Board Member

• Becky Kumar - Board Member

• Erin Wilk - Board Member

• Julie Wilk - Honorary Member

welcome to Our 11th annual pink pumpkin run

Join us October 4, 2025 in Beautiful Downtown Hartford.

Event Schedule -

NEW - EARLY REGISTRATION PACKET PICKUP - FRIDAY OCTOBER 3rd FROM NOON TILL 5 PM at salon effervescence 55 e Sumner st.

7:30: Registration Opens at Salon Effervescence - 55 E. Sumner St.

8:20: Warm-up begins on Main Street across from City Hall

8:40: Opening Ceremony on Main Street across from City Hall

9:00: 5K run/walk begins

9:15: 2 mile walk starts

9:45/10:00 Kid’s Dash held on Main Street

10:15: Closing Ceremony

10:00-2:00: Pink Pumpkin Fest - Come for the run, stay for the family fun!

To Volunteer for the day of our event or to help before then, please email mehluml@gmail.com

Nominate Someone in Need

If you or someone you know in Washington or Dodge County is battling breast cancer and could benefit from some help in the form of grocery/dining/gas gift cards or cleaning services.

If you are a survivor or are facing a breast cancer diagnosis or going through treatment, we invite you to join us for our monthly Support Group. These have resumed and will happen the first Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m. at the Jack Russell Memorial Library in Hartford, WI in the upstairs conference room. All are welcome to join. Please follow us on Facebook for more information.

2025 Pink Pumpkin Run- See you in October!

In Downtown Hartford

Join us on Saturday, October 4, 2025. We will hosting our 11th annual event! We can't thank our sponsors and our participants enough!

To learn more and to join in on the fun, please LIKE us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PinkPumpkinRun. Together we can make a difference in our communities!

Volunteer!

Please email us at mehluml@gmail.com to sign up as a volunteer for the day of our event!

Register!

Click here to REGISTER for the 2025 Pink Pumpkin Run on runsignup.com or fill out paperwork at Salon Effervescence. If you have general questions about the event or sponsoring, please email info@saloneffervescence@gmail.com

Thank you to our 2025 Sponsors

HOT PINK SPONSORS

***APRIL AND JOHN WALD***



COSMOPOLITAN SPONSORS

RORIC GRIFFITH

ELI AND MARTHA BEKKUM

BUBBLE GUM SPONSORS

Dave’s Lane/Wheel Chair Bowling

First United Methodist Church

Signicast

Glacier Hills Credit Union

Laufer Trucking

Espinoso Family Dental

Dodge Dental Studio

bANK sHOT SPORTS BAR

Rick’s Plumbing

brewed omen

Hartford lions

ewald’s hartford ford

Courtney mac fitness

PACK & SHIP AND MORE

Keller - planners, architects and builders

bank five nine

St Aidan’s EPSCOPAL CHURCH

In-Kind Donations

Door county maritime museum

tower lanes in Beaver Dam

Infinity Design

Brewed omen

hahn ace hardware of hartford

von steiehl wine tasting

comedysportz club

Lake geneva cruise line

lotus be well

beaver dam country club

schnorenberg’s floor covering

Dave’s lanes

admirals joe’s slinger service

festival foods

rs semler

schauer arts center

wisconsin automotive museum

culvers

Special Thanks to:

Koepsell’s Pumpkins for donating all of our pumpkins!

Jack Russell Memorial Library- for hosting our monthly support groups.

Our tireless and inspirational board members. 

Our dedicated and loyal volunteers.

About Us

Thank you for your incredible and continued support of the Pink Pumpkin Run. Your generosity makes it possible for us to carry out our mission of supporting those affected by breast cancer. We're thrilled to announce that the ELEVENTH annual Pink Pumpkin Run will take place in downtown Hartford on October 4th, 2025! We're excited to again feature our vendor area, which means even more live music, delicious food, family-friendly activities, sweet treats, and of course - shopping!

By our efforts aren't limited to just one day. In 2024, our board members were active year-round, seeking new opportunities to connect with the community. We participated in the Music & Uncle Larry's Fish Fry events put on by Friends of Pike Lake on Fridays, joined Chix4aCause in West Bend for the Survivors Day in the Sun. , and returned to Girls Night Out event at Lammscapes. We also continued our cherished pumpkin painting parties at Black's Flower Shop, decorating hundreds of pumpkins that beautifully lined the downtown river walk. Thanks to your support, 2024 was another outstanding year! We exceeded our goals and were able to assist more families in our community than ever before. The 2024 run had an incredible 710 participants, and with our generous sponsors, we've now distributed over $240,500 in gift cards for gas, groceries, restaurants, and cleaning services. We can’t wait to share with you what 2025 brings.

pumpkin Painting Parties - All our pumpkins are hand painted by our wonderful volunteers in our community.

The Pink Pumpkin Run was fortunate to team with Texas Roadhouse on October 12, 2022 with their Dine To Donate program. We were the beneficiaries of 10% of sales from dinner that night. We had a small table to promote our organization and sell clothing. It was a wonderful time to talk with the community and spread our mission.

The Pink Pumpkin Run is run and organized by a group of volunteers.

In 2009 Julie Wilk was diagnosed with breast cancer. She decided to start painting pumpkins pink during the month of October to decorate her husband's dental office and to bring awareness to breast cancer. It turned out that patients at Grand Ave Dental were touched by the pumpkins and soon started to ask if they could purchase one. Throughout the years, Julie and her daughter Erin started to paint more and more pumpkins letting patients make a donation and select a pumpkin to take home, giving all the proceeds to the Avon Race for the Cure Organization.

Then in 2013, Sally Jude was diagnosed with breast cancer and while going through chemo, her friend Karin purchased her a pink pumpkin. The pumpkin made it through her treatments and once recovered, she began to think about how she could make a difference and bring Breast Cancer awareness to our community.

In the fall of 2014, Sally's friend, Karin Buhle who worked together at the Hartford Business Improvement District introduced Sally to Erin and Pink Pumpkin ideas began flowing. After a couple more meetings and a few lunches, the inaugural run was scheduled for October 3rd, 2015. Local Farmers were contacted to donate pumpkins, additional committee members were gathered and it was decided that all monies raised would stay in the local area to help those battling Breast Cancer.