Roary the Lion, the Detroit Lions' mascot, launches a ball at the Saline Winterfest, which was held in January.

Courtesy photo

In a time when government departments are being asked to collaborate on projects, members of Saline’s Department of Parks and Recreation and Department of Public Works put their heads together and came up with an award-winning idea.

It all started when Sunshine Lambert, Saline’s recreation supervisor, came up with the idea of making a water balloon launcher, said Carla Scruggs, Saline’s parks and recreation director.

“It was made of old pop-up tent material that I cut and sewed together and added handles,” Lambert said. “It worked but…”

She soon realized that it would be more fun for the city’s youth if they were able to fling things with a tool that was safe but that could really make stuff fly.

“Who doesn’t like to fling things?” Lambert asked.

Graham Fordice launches a pumpkin at Mill Pond Park this fall.

Courtesy photo

So she asked Bryan Corfman of the city’s public works department if he could come up with a better mousetrap — or in this case, a better launcher.

“Bryan’s very handy and clever and he can build anything,” Lambert said.

Built out of all recycled materials, the launcher stands at least 7 feet tall, Corfman said. The base measures 4 feet by 4 feet.

“It’s made out of scrap metal we had around the shop and weighs about 50 pounds,” he said.

Once challenged with the idea, he said, he used his engineering skills and made the launcher in an afternoon.

“The ingenious design allows pumpkins (and other such items as water balloons and paint balloons) to be launched over 100 feet,” Scruggs said.

Carla Scruggs, Bryan Corfman and Sunshine Lambert, from left, show off the Innovative Park Resource Award won by Saline Parks and Recreation for the city's pumpkin launcher during a recent City Council meeting.

Lisa Allmendinger | AnnArbor.com

Corfman and Lambert said that had a lot of fun trying out the launcher with old pumpkins in the public works department parking lot.

“We were laughing the whole time,” Lambert said.

And the invention won the 2011 Michigan Recreation & Park Association Innovative Park Resource Award.

The tool was honored for its "innovation and usefulness" at the Great Pumpkin Roll at Mill Pond Park last November, Scruggs said, before garnering statewide recognition.

It has been used for several special events during the past year, including at the first pumpkin roll held last fall.

“After the pumpkins are rolled, kids and adults took turns launching their pumpkins into the Waste Management dumpster,” Scruggs said.

Last summer, the launcher was used for a community art project called “Splash like Pollack,” at Tefft Park. The kids launched paint-filled balloons at a large canvas to create a master work piece of art, Lambert said.

Most recently, the launcher made its winter debut at the city’s first Winterfest, where children launched snowballs into buckets behind the city’s Chamber of Commerce office.

“We feel that every community should have a pumpkin launcher because the programming possibilities are endless,” Scruggs said.

Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter with AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Saline stories, visit our Saline page.