Tony and Kelly Trent signed copies of their son’s book and met supporters at the Herman B. Wells Center for Pediatric Research in Indianapolis. Justin L. Mack, justin.mack@Indystar.com

For the past four years, Dull’s Tree Farm in Boone County has used the corn maze design for its annual pumpkin harvest to both wow visitors, and make a statement. 

In 2016, they celebrated Indiana’s bicentennial. Last year, they honored the life of fallen Boone County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Pickett while also showing their support for all first responders.

This year, the Dull family farm is rolling out a design that is #TylerStrong in an effort to generate funds for continued cancer research.

“We started working with the Trent family as soon as we had the idea .. we wanted to make sure that any representation of Tyler and his story fit what they wanted it to be,” said Lucas Dull, a manager at Dull’s Tree Farm who oversees the pumpkin harvest. “They’ve been great to work with, have loved the idea and have been excited about us doing it. And the response from the public has been great so far.

“We hope that translates into a lot of people getting excited about coming out and helping us raise some money.”

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Dull explained that the idea to celebrate Tyler Trent and his inspirational battle with cancer was born from his family’s own strong ties to Purdue University, and their experience with pediatric cancer.

Dull met his wife, Dana, when they were both Purdue students. 

Ten years ago, his sister-and-law was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a form of brain cancer. After nearly two years of treatment, Dull’s sister-in-law has been in remission for eight years.

Having gone through something similar and sharing the Boilermaker connection, Dull said his family followed Trent’s story closely and were moved by his journey.

With September designated Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, the Dulls decided that their fall corn maze would be their way of supporting the Trent family as they continue Tyler’s fight.

“Tyler’s family continues to do a lot … so we decided to see if they would be up for letting us feature Tyler in the maze and share his story,” Dull said. “And we’ll try to do some event throughout our season to raise awareness and some funds for pediatric cancer research.”

The 2019 corn maze design features a silhouette of Tyler Trent with his arms raised. He is surrounded by the words “THIS MAZE FIGHTS CANCER,” inspired by the Tyler Trent T-shirts that read “THIS SHIRT FIGHTS CANCER.”

Dull said the family starts coming up with maze ideas as early as February, and the corn is usually planted in June. When the concept is done, they send the design to another company that converts it into a solvable, walkable maze. 

When the design is finalized, the maze company goes to the Thorntown farm when the corn is 3 to 5 inches tall, draws out the design with paint and sprays the field to ensure that the corn only grows where they want it.

Dull said the maze makers also try to make sure the maze itself is challenging but not impossible to complete in about an hour’s time. 

Dull’s Pumpkin Harvest runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 27. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is $10 per person, and children 2 and under get in free. Groups of 25 people or more get a group rate of $8 per person, while active military members and people over 65 get in for $7 per person. 

Dull’s will also sell copies of “The Upset,” Tyler Trent’s book, with proceeds going to the Tyler Trent Cancer Research Endowment.