Team Slocum rolls out pumpkin express

Pete Fontaine
Posted 10/28/14

Diane Erickson makes a living by providing special service to customers at Peter’s Coney Island Restaurant on West Shore Road.

Just a few days ago, the career waitress joined Team Slocum and …

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Team Slocum rolls out pumpkin express

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Diane Erickson makes a living by providing special service to customers at Peter’s Coney Island Restaurant on West Shore Road.

Just a few days ago, the career waitress joined Team Slocum and became part of a heart-warming people-pleasing program that has few, if any, rivals around these parts.

“I had so much fun,” Erickson began, while noting “it’s a tiring task but well worth it; this program is certainly unique and makes a lot of people happy around this time of year.”

Officially, it’s known as Slocum Realty and Insurance’s “Pumpkin Program” that Erickson learned about by waiting on Phil and Lauren Slocum at the breakfast and lunch spot.

“It sounded like super fun and I’m used to being on my feet,” Erickson offered. “So when Phil [and Lauren] extended an invitation to come along, I accepted, and I’m really glad I did. The entire day was special.”

That was an understatement, for sure.

Early Saturday morning Phil Slocum hooked up a small trailer to his SUV and headed for Morris Farms on Warwick Avenue. Some 20 minutes or so later a forklift loaded a cardboard sided box loaded with pumpkins and placed it on the trailer and sent Slocum on his way to meet people at his company’s office at 1229 Greenwich Avenue in Warwick.

“Hi gang,” Slocum said to nearly a dozen adults and two children upon his arrival. “Let’s get started.”

Smiles were written all over the people’s faces – most especially Ryan Salema and Parker Amaral – who were in for the treat of their young lives.

For the next four to five hours and possibly more, Slocum and his trailer-load of pumpkins – which was followed by Nick Slocum’s vehicle full of people – pulled into a number of neighborhoods like the Greenwood section of Warwick, and members of Team Slocum took pumpkins from the huge container and placed them at the doorsteps of people’s homes.

Team Slocum, which was made up of people from the company’s real estate and insurance division and their children, repeated that scene time and again until more than 900 pumpkins were placed at homes in Warwick and Cranston.

“We’ve been doing this for several years,” Phil Slocum said. “We do this in local communities that our agents have adopted and chosen to specialize in over the years. While we enjoy helping our clients throughout all of Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts, these areas [Greenwood and Gaspee] have very strong bonds with our agents in an ongoing basis.”

Slocum Realty and Insurance’s “Pumpkin Program” is a pre-Halloween event that Phil Slocum said “is our way of saying thank you to our many customers for their loyal support through the years. It’s because of these people that we’ve been doing business locally since 1949.”

Phil and several other members of Team Slocum then recalled one stop along the way when an elderly man called out from his door saying, “Thank you!”

“The man was ecstatic,” said Phil. “This is my wife’s favorite thing at this time of year, seeing people show up with all those pumpkins.”

“At one point we had to reload,” Phil noted. “We had to go back to Morris Farms for a second load of pumpkins. But that was well worth it. Just to know it brightened one elderly man’s and woman’s day was well worth it. We wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween.”

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