Scarecrows normally pop up in fields, but this fall a northern Illinois city is continuing its tradition of taking these bird deterrents to other landscapes.
The 36th annual Scarecrow Festival in St. Charles is now accepting applications for its contest.
Jenna Sawicki is the executive director at the St. Charles Business Alliance. She said there are categories for all levels of creatives.
“We have some professional artists come in and do the mega category. And those are amazing to look at,” she added. “But we also want to encourage, you know, young, budding artists that are in Girl Scout troops and church groups and community groups.”
The mega category is open to everyone, but other categories are for specific groupings. One includes clubs, nonprofits and schools, another for individuals and the fourth is for businesses.
She said the bird bullies are normally displayed at Lincoln Park and some will continue to be planted there, but last year the pandemic sparked a new concept -- the Scarecrow Stroll.
“We spread them out all over our downtown,” Sawicki explained. “And it actually really helped all of our downtown businesses because we were able to get people to walk around and discover businesses that may might have never seen before.”
So, Sawicki said, they will do the same this year.
Voting happens during the festival and will be judged by the community.
“We actually have ballots at the information booths. So, we'll have an information booth in Lincoln Park and in front of the municipal building here -- City Hall,” she said. “And people can actually physically pick up a ballot and then turn it back into us. And then we have volunteers that track them all weekend.”
The deadline for entries is Sept.18. The festival takes place Friday, Oct. 8th through Sunday, Oct. 10th.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
