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Orange is the new giving back

By Carolyne Zinko, San Francisco Chronicle on

Published in Senior Living Features

Cynics often question how much of a difference one person can make in the world. They might try taking a look at Wyeth Coulter.

Every Halloween since he was 8, Coulter, now a high school senior, has hosted a pumpkin patch in the backyard of his family's home in Presidio Heights. The point wasn't just to sell decorative gourds. His initial effort -- selling 50 pumpkins for $100 in 2004 -- blossomed into the sale of 4,000 pumpkins last year for $27,000. He has raised more than $230,000 to date.

His goal was to use his favorite holiday -- the candy, the costumes, the pumpkin patch! -- to help the less fortunate after becoming aware of homeless people on trips downtown with his father, a private equity firm investor.

"I remember saying back then that when I grew up, I wanted to help people," Coulter said. "I didn't know what that would entail, but I did want to grow these pumpkins and I knew I could give money."

He handed his first $100 to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, and in subsequent years included the San Francisco Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals and FacesSF, which helps kids. Pumpkin patch customers designate a fund for their money.

His philanthropic parents, Penny and Jim Coulter, who own land in Sonoma, let him raise pumpkins there, provided irrigation help, and had ranch hands to keep an eye on the plants while they grew from May to October. Coulter and various school chums over the years (Philip Goss, Isaiah Wartell and Ethan Saghi among them) planted the seeds, picked the pumpkins, loaded them into the trucks and offloaded them into the backyard.

Coulter's persistence set him apart from other children early on.

"They come in once, you think that's great -- we don't see kids who hold the interest," said Paul Ash, executive director of the San Francisco Food Bank. "Wyeth is the one who has hung in there."

"I've been in fundraising for almost 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this at this level -- he's really created a business to raise money," said Jill Jacobs, major gifts officer at SF SPCA.

The $50,000 he has donated over the years has gone toward the adoption center and care of 5,000 rescue animals a year and would be hard to replace, she said, noting the independent SF SPCA does not receive any national funding.

The pumpkin patch's second year was a pivotal year: Coulter enlisted his 10-year-old friends to distribute flyers, lift pumpkins and close sales with customers, and the group effort yielded $700.

 

On Oct. 11, the Coulters' backyard opened for the 11th annual pumpkin patch sale at noon, and was soon full of neighbors using coaster wagons to lug colorful pumpkins and gourds to their cars, including public relations woman Allison Speer, who said she looks forward to the tradition "as much as picking out our Christmas tree."

Pumpkins are Coulter's biggest charity calling, but not his only one. As captain of the cross-country team at San Francisco University High School, he organized a 5K run in Golden Gate Park on April 12 that raised $10,000 in memory of the school's late coach Jim Tracy, who died of ALS. He is planning a second in 2016.

This year's pumpkin patch will be the 18-year-old's last, as he's turning his focus to college. His efforts have not won him any community service points at school, but he'll earn the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals in San Francisco on Nov. 10.

"The biggest thing I've learned is there are so many people who actually want to help that just don't know how," Coulter said. "All I can credit myself with is just being an organized person, truthfully, and having good support. Anyone could have really done this, but the fact that I just went out and tried to really made the difference."

Carolyne Zinko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: czinko@sfchronicle.com

Pumpkin Patch to Benefit Charity Open to the public at 150 Spruce St., S.F., from noon-4 p.m. Oct 24-25. Cash or check only.

(c)2015 the San Francisco Chronicle

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(c) San Francisco Chronicle

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