Last fall Ron Lamontagne was taking a Sunday drive, frustrated by a comment that was made about his son’s seizure disorder.
“Someone asked us not to tell anyone about Kollin’s seizures because of the stigma that’s associated with it,” said Lamontagne. “We felt that it was more important that people know about his epilepsy for his own safety.”
As Lamontagne was driving past a pumpkin patch, he came up with an idea to paint pumpkins purple. When a person asks why the pumpkin is purple, there is an opportunity to talk about epilepsy and spread awareness, said Lamontagne.
Lamontagne created a Facebook page called the Purple Pumpkin Project in 2012. After one month, the page had 3,000 likes from 32 different countries. He also created a Facebook event, which encouraged other communities to decorate pumpkins.
