Just days before the Charles River opened up to the bevy of boats participating in this year’s Head of the Charles Regatta, a very different sort of watercraft sailed across it.
Early one day this fall, Benjamin Chang ’23-’24, joined by a group of friends, starts the day by, picking up a 1,500 lb. pumpkin from the fields of a renowned giant pumpkin farmer in New Hampshire. The group carts their prize back to campus — no small feat. Chang has long had the dream to sail a giant pumpkin down the Charles. And soon, his long-time dream would become a reality.
Chang, a former Crimson editor, used the giant pumpkin boat as a fundraiser for the Harvard College OpenBio Laboratory, a student-run makerspace for biological research that he is the co-president of. Chang says the pumpkin project, which is an example of selective breeding, is “all about spreading a sense of wonder about…
