Los Gatos High School presents "The Magical Glass Pumpkin Fundraiser" from Oct. 17­18. The first annual event is to assist high school programs, mainly an art teacher position that was de-funded due to recent government budget cuts. Local artist Tom Stanton, who also has two daughters who attend Los Gatos High School, said a minimum of $10,000 will go to the school programs.

The artists from Los Gatos, Saratoga and surrounding areas will exhibit their finely crafted, traditional glass pumpkins at a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 17, although the pumpkins won't be for sale that night. The next day, Oct. 18, the pumpkins can be purchased from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 20 High School Court, off Main Street. The event is sponsored by Holy City Art Glass, 21200 Old Santa Cruz Highway in Los Gatos, and Stonybrook Studios, 22900 Congress Springs Road in Saratoga.

"We can't make the giant pumpkins fast enough," said Shelly Monfort, of Stonybrook Studios, adding that the pumpkins for sale will be the largest made in the world. She also said no two pumpkins are exactly alike.

Featured local artists include Stanton of Holy City Art Glass, Monfort and Ken Mollenaur of Stonybrook Studios, 1978 Los Gatos High School graduate Gigi Erickson, Mike and Stephanie Walton, Kevin Chong, Treg Silkwood, Patrick Mullen, Mark Walton, Kitty Matheson, George Brandau, Curt Walton, Cole Bergren, Christine Devalcour, Dr. Kevin Calvert, and 2002 Los Gatos High School graduate Genoa Fox.

"The trick is learning to balance a glob of honey on the end of a stick and shape it using centrifugal force because you can't touch it," Stanton said.

Heated to more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, globs of molten glass that look like globs of honey—glowing a bright red-orange—are attached on the end of a hollow pipe. The pipe is rolled back and forth, and the glob is made into a ball that is shaped with the use of lung pressure and metal molds. The pumpkin is placed in a kiln many times throughout the process to keep the glass hot. And a minimum of three people are needed to assist in making the larger pumpkins. It's a very delicate process—one split second too long could mean the glass cools and shatters.

Colored and broken pieces of glass are used to achieve the variety of different brightly tinted pumpkins that will be on sale. They range from anywhere between $50 for a bird's nest-sized pumpkin to about $400 for a beach ball-sized pumpkin.

Stanton said it's a delicate process that takes much lung strength as well as caution to prevent the glass from shattering. And once people start collecting these precious pieces they can't stop.

"It's an addiction," Monfort said. "People around here are very familiar with glass pumpkins. There's a following."

Erickson said a pumpkin can serve as a home display year-round. It's a symbol of the ancient evolution of hunters and gathers, the harvest-bounty season, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Glass is one of the first manmade materials, and Stanton said the art of glass blowing dates back about 4,000 years to Egyptian times.

Monfort added that the fundraising effort wouldn't be possible without Stanton, who has been blowing glass for about 30 years, although he said that it took him 10 of those 30 years to finally get good at it.

"Tom's a mentor to a tremendous number of people. He's very generous and extremely community-oriented," she said.

Fox said she met Stanton during a glass-bead-making class through the Los Gatos­Saratoga Recreation Department, and he helped interest her in glass blowing. Fox, who now attends Cabrillo College in Aptos, said that as a graduate of the high school this fundraiser is important to her.

"It's kind of crazy being back," she said. "But for four years this high school was my second home."