Now showing: ‘Pumpkins at the movies’ for this year’s Sycamore festival theme

SYCAMORE – Pumpkins are headed to the cinema in the 2025 Sycamore Pumpkin Festival.

Sycamore Pumpkin Festival officials announced the winner of the 50th annual festival theme contest Wednesday evening to a crowd of more than 40 from the steps of the DeKalb County Courthouse.

Rayven Rosas submitted the contest’s winning entry: “Pumpkins at the movies.”

Rosas, a South Prairie Elementary School 5th grader, said she has loved movies for just about as long as she can remember. It took some special circumstances to help her craft her winning idea, she said.

“There was like an internet outage, and we were thinking about stuff we liked ... let’s make it pumpkins at the movies, since we like movies,” Rosas said.

Rosas’ mother, Nicole Houran, jumped for joy when her daughter was announced as the 2025 Sycamore Pumpkin Festival theme contest winner.

“I’m very proud of her, I’m super proud of her,” Houran said of her daughter.

She said she and Rosas were trying to decide what movie to see when the idea hit them.

“It was like, ‘What can we do while the internet’s out?’ and we realized we watch a lot of movies, and we go to the movies a lot, so we were actually talking about what movie to go see that weekend, Houran said.

The family ended up watching “The Wild Robot.” Houran said that choice tied back into Rosas’ education.

“We actually read the book with South Prairie [Elementary],” Houran said.

As the winner of this year’s theme contest, Rosas won a goodie bag, a cash prize and the opportunity to ride in the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival parade as a festival dignitary.

She won’t be alone, however. Two runner-up contestants, Lucas Faivre and Annabelle Hochstatter also received a goodie bag, a cash prize and the chance to ride in the festival’s parade through downtown Sycamore.

Faivre received an honorable mention with his submission, “Pumpkins on vacation.” Hochstatter earned her honorable mention with her entry, “Pumpkins in paradise.”

Houran said she and Rosas’ father, Carlos Rosas are excited to see their daughter in the parade.

“I think she should just know that me and daddy are super proud of her, and we can’t wait to see her in the parade representing us,” Houran said.