MAGNOLIA, Ark. — It may have taken her six hours with no breaks in between to do it, but Southern Arkansas University graduate student Virginia Bennett won the second annual pumpkin carving contest with her pumpkin she named “SAU Meets Sleepy Hollow.”

For her grueling effort, which created multiple campus icons such as the University bell tower out of pumpkin flesh, Bennett received a $75 gift card to Wal-Mart. Bennett, of Malvern, Ark., said she entered the contest this past year, but was particularly glad to win this year because she knows exactly what to do with the money.

“My brother, Specialist Donovan Witham, was killed in action in Iraq on August 21, 2007,” Bennett said. “Next Wednesday is his birthday so I’m going to buy some really nice flowers to put on his grave,” she said, adding her brother, a member of the U.S. Army Military police paratroopers, would have been 21.

Bennett is pursuing her master’s degree in school counseling and already has a bachelor’s of science in agriculture education from SAU.

The second prize pumpkin, netting a $50 Wal-Mart gift card was awarded to Inna Eltchaninova, a senior finance major of Ocean City, Russia. Third place in the contest and winner of a $25 Wal-Mart gift card was Sara Caller, a sophomore majoring in print journalism from Taylor, Ark. In all, thirteen students participated in this year’s contest.