About GUTS

GUTS is a friendly pumpkin carving competition organized and created in 2008 by Crafted, a marketing agency in Charlotte, NC. What began as an internal team building event at Crafted has grown into a community-wide event, attracting the finest creative talent in the area and support from generous sponsors and patrons. The primary goal of this event is to unify the creative community in support of children and their families who fight the real fight every day at A Child’s Place. 

After a pandemic break away from the event, we are entering our 11th Annual GUTS competition. Our venue grew from a small parking lot on the edge of uptown to four years at the NC Music Factory and three years at Truist Ballpark. Now we are back at AvidXchange Music Factory due to their tremendous support and generous donation of their event space. Our list of carvers, attendees, and donations grow each year, allowing us to raise money for incredible causes – Levine Children’s Hospital, Make-a-Wish of Central and Western NC, and this year for A Child’s Place. In the past 10 years of GUTS, we have raised over $250,000 for the children and families in Charlotte. 

GUTS is open to local and regional creative professionals that want to test their pumpkin carving skills and, more importantly, raise money for the brave children and their families at A Child’s Place. Money is raised through ticket sales, carver registration fees, sales of creatively carved pumpkins, food, drink, and merchandise sold at the event. For those who can’t make it or those that would like to do a little extra, we invite anyone, anywhere, to contribute by donating.