Cheri Youngman, second from right, won the Christianson Industries Halloween contest. Also pictured are Mike Doorn, Luke Rawlings and Jeremiah Vickery. (Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK)

Cheri Youngman’s apple-inspired design she found on the internet helped her win the fourth annual Christianson Industries’ Halloween contest.

For her efforts, Youngman won $100 and a $25 gift card, which was donated by Kencom of Bristol, Ind.

Jeremiah Vickery took second place with Luke Rawling, who was the winner in 2012, third. Mike Doorn took home the “try again next year” prize.

Vickery won $50 and Rawlings $25. They also received $25 gift cards as did Doorn.

Youngman’s “apple” design was a work in progress right up to the finish.

“I worked every morning and evening on it for a couple of days,” Youngman said. “First I cut the top and bottom off, but then there is no center of the pumpkin. There was no core. I had to rethink everything. So I cut everything into slices and tried to dry them out so I could use hot glue or something. They shrunk.

“So I bought a candle and melted it down and used that as the core.”

Vickery didn’t even decide on a design until he started drawing on the pumpkin. He liked what he saw and the rest, as they say, is history.

Rawlings “headless” pumpkin was just a random idea. He used old horseshoes and welded them together for the body and arms and then set his carved pumpkin atop the right hand.

“I got a couple of hours in the body and not real long in the pumpkin,” he said. “It took a couple of hours. I like to hobby weld.”

Rawlings said he is already thinking about next year and how to reclaim his title.

The judges for the contest were Terry Jones of Kencom, Tim Farwig of Michiana Corrugated Products and Mickey Thomas of Hickory Springs.

“In 2009 when the recession was so bad, we had very limited employees and things were bad all over,” said Susan Klemm, president of Christianson Industries. “We just wanted to do something that was fun. We had about 17 participants that year and every year since, it was grown. This is the fourth year and you can see what we’ve got.

“They enjoy it and they look forward to the pumpkin carving every year. About September every year I get asked if we are going to have it. The company buys the pumpkin and gives it to them. All they have to do is sign up. There are no rules. They can do anything they want. We have a lot of creativity out there.”