After reading about the pumpkin smashing in the Resident, Countrywide Home Loans officer Rebecca Marcura Dinapoli said she felt compelled to restore the Halloween spirit at her alma mater.

"Willow Glen Elementary was my school. Now that my kids have graduated, I don't get to do things for the school, and I felt sorry for the kids," she said.

So Dinapoli spoke with Countrywide Home Loans branch manager James Bellew, and told him she wanted to help the students replace their pumpkin.

"I told him it was a great thing to do for the community, and he agreed," she said/

To find as near a match as possible for the destroyed Atlantic pumpkin, Dinapoli said she searched all the pumpkin lots in Santa Clara County, but to no avail. Armed with pictures of the destroyed pumpkin, she stretched her quest beyond the Valley and drove to Half Moon Bay. Four pumpkin patches later, Dinapoli found what she was looking for.

"I pulled a few pickers aside and showed them pictures of the pumpkin," she said. "They brought back three pumpkins and let us pick the one we wanted."

Dinapoli said she selected the Atlantic gourd that most nearly resembled the traditional pumpkin shape.

"Atlantics are not always shaped like pumpkins," she said. "This one was shaped like it."

On Oct. 12, Dinapoli delivered the pumpkin to the school in a pickup truck, and, along with co-worker John Thavy, helped unload the gourd onto a cart.

Fourth-grade teacher Donna Dean, whose class tended the pumpkin, declared the new pumpkin a good match. "It's like the pumpkin's cousin," she said when glancing at the replacement pumpkin.

Dean and five members of her fourth-grade class—Chris Herrera, Robert McChesney, Weston Mueller, Joshua Swayzer and Rhett West—aided the pumpkin's transport to its new home in the media center, a place that Dean said she hopes will be safe and vandal-free.

The five students all said they were excited about the ersatz pumpkin, and agreed with their teacher that it closely resembled its smashed predecessor.

"It's as heavy to lift as the other one," Joshua said.

Rhett agreed that, except for its color, the relief pumpkin was a near replica of the destroyed one.

"It looks like the other one," he said. "It's just a little yellower. The big one that got smashed was dark green."

The pumpkin was so near a match that Chris suggested they name it "Pumpkin Cousin."

The memory of the first cousin, however, still lingers in both the students and Dean. The fourth-grade teacher said the whole school experienced the loss of the pumpkin.

"Several teachers told me they had never seen kids so quiet before," she said. "A pumpkin reaches students you might not be able to reach otherwise."

The students also remember the day they discovered their pumpkin smashed to pulp across the playground. But Weston said he is also trying to understand and forgive the vandals.

"I felt sad and sad some more," Weston said. "Some people have problems in them, probably. I feel sad for them because they don't have the knowledge to be smart."

But when life gives one smashed pumpkins, there is a sweet solution: make pumpkin bars. And that is exactly what Rhett and his mother did with the pulp of the broken squash.

Dean said the donation of the replacement pumpkin has also helped relieve some of her anger at the unknown individuals who destroyed the previous one.

"It's amazing," she said. "It's wonderful. I'm really surprised. There are some very nice people out there. Someone's joyride for an evening has really pulled the community together. We have had a lot of support."