Expect patriotic pumpkins to line the walkways of the DeKalb County Courthouse lawn this October, thanks to a timely idea from a North Grove Elementary School student.

Rayna Hochstatter, 9, was announced as the winner of the 2026 Sycamore Pumpkin Festival theme contest on Wednesday. Her winning entry, which sets the tone for the 65th annual festival, was “A patriotic Pumpkinfest.”

She said being named the winner “means a lot” because it’s her first time placing in the contest. She said the country’s 250th anniversary and some help from her mom sparked her idea.

For the Hochstatter family, the 2026 Sycamore Pumpkin Festival theme contest ended up being a family affair. Rayna Hochstatter’s sister, Annabelle Hochstatter, 11, was selected as a runner-up for the contest with her entry “Peace, Love and Pumpkins.”

This wasn’t Annabelle Hochstatter’s first time coming up just shy of the contest winner. In 2025, she was also selected as a runner-up.

Despite coming close to the contest win two years in a row, Annabelle Hochstatter said, “I’m perfectly fine with that because I’m very happy for my sister.”

Their mother, Emily Hochstatter, watched Rayna and Annabelle celebrate as their names were called in front of the couple dozen who gathered for the contest winners’ announcement Wednesday night.

“This is incredibly special, they are such creative kids,” Emily Hochstatter said. “I’m so glad they’re seeing a reward from this, too. It’s fun, and now they get to see kind of how it comes to life in October.”

Tessa Scott, who did not attend the theme winner announcement, was selected as the second runner-up in the contest for her entry “Pumpkins in outer space.”

Trenton DeVito, who heads up the Pumpkin Festival committee’s theme contest operation, said the sisters’ entries were chosen through a voting system that keeps their names anonymous until they have a winner and two runner-ups.

“This year, it happened to be sisters,” DeVito said. “That’s a creative bunch, I’ll tell you that. They’re all very, very creative, but it’s fascinating to see two really good ideas come from sisters.”

Greg D’Addario, a festival committee member, as well as an English teacher and media advisor at Sycamore High School, said he was surprised “a patriotic Pumpkinfest” hadn’t been used as a theme in the past.

“It seems like it’s right there, out in the open. I mean, the community aspect of this event to begin with is just very – it feels like small-town USA, very patriotic in general," D’Addario said. “It’s about time we had that as a theme.”

Rob Dancey, who became the Pumpkin Fest Committee’s president in January, said when the committee selects a theme contest winner, they have to check to make sure it hasn’t been used before.

D’Addario said, “Weirdly, no,” they don’t often run into duplicate ideas.

“The imagination of children, right?” D’Addario said. “As much as we’ve had – you know, 65 of them now – there’s still so many different ones out there, and there’s still so many awesome ideas that students come up with.”

With the theme contest now in the rearview, Dancey said their preparations for this year’s festival are “running along smoothly.” The festival returns Oct. 22 through Oct. 26.

“We couldn’t make it happen without the great committee that we have,” Dancey said. “Everybody is stepping up to the plate, making sure things get done, and we are very excited to launch the festival tonight with the theme unveiling, and we’re ready to go.”

D’Addario said the festival is a community effort, but noted Dancey’s efforts this go-around.

“The committee as a whole does a lot of work, but Rob stepping up has also been awesome,” D’Addario said. “He’s been a great leader so far.”