Sparkling Fish Scarecrow Captivates Newtown For The Win

By Eliza Hallabeck

Last year’s winning Newtown Middle School Scarecrow Contest creation, “Candy,” was all sweetness, and this year’s — “Blue Fish, Blue Fish, What Do You Scare?” — was all shine.

Roughly 40 scarecrows adorned the front lawn of the Queen Street school from October 23 until October 30. Each year eighth grade student groups are challenged to create a larger-than-life scarecrow, designed to frighten away a demon of their choice, that can withstand inclement weather. Each student group is limited to spending $25 on its scarecrow. The creations are then voted on by the public, for $1 per vote, and the top three winning scarecrow groups receive the profits to donate to a charity of their choice.

The contest raised a total of $1,056, with half the total credited to the winning entry and the balance split between the second and third place finishers.

On Thursday, November 4, the winning student groups gathered together in the school’s lobby for photos. This year a giant fish, with scales formed out of CDs, took first place with 101 votes, a larger-than-life version of the Toy Story franchise’s cowboy character Woody took second place with 81 votes, and the Where The Wild Things Are character Carol took third place with 69 votes. 

In order to gather enough CDs to cover their “Blue Fish, Blue Fish, What Do You Scare?” scarecrow, creators Hannah Fitzgerald and Jesse Sailer held a CD drive in school. After the drive collected only 40 CDs, Jesse and Hannah needed to look further. Jesse’s grandmother helped out with 100 CDs, and Jesse’s mother donated another 100, but the girls still needed many more CDs to create the fish’s scales.

It was Jesse’s father who eventually came to the group’s rescue, according to Jesse, by calling the New Hampshire CD Recycling Company, adding a 400 CD donation to the fishy cause.

Jesse said on Thursday she and Hannah enjoyed working on the scarecrow, and plan to donate their winnings, $528, to both the Canine Advocates of Newtown and The FAITH Food Pantry.

Woody’s creators, Hannah Booth, Abby Callery, Kenzie Casey, and Megan Milano, said they also plan to donate their $264 winnings to the FAITH Food Pantry.

“Thanksgiving is coming up,” said Kenzie, “and those who need food will need food.”

The girls all agreed they too enjoyed building their scarecrow.

“We just had fun making it,” said Hannah Booth.

Carol’s creators, Caitlin Jones, Rebecca Oberstadt, and Katelyn Zimmerman, said they plan to give their winning $264 to the World Wildlife Fund, because that is “where the wild things are.”

Other scarecrows created and set up at the school this year included two Geico Geckos, a “Count M&M,” a “Riding In Style” pumpkin similar to Cinderella’s ride, a “Don’t Worry Be Happy” cheerleader, a nine-foot “Angel of Art,” a “Super Hero Starfish,” Star Wars characters, and more.