Prepare For A Fright: Scarecrows Will Once Again Decorate NMS

By Eliza Hallabeck

After nearly ten years of watching the creations of their students decorate the front lawn of Newtown Middle School, Claudia Mitchell and Arlene Spoonfeather said they still get scared sometimes.

With jack-o’-lanterns starting to pop up on Newtown’s doorsteps, fall has started bringing more than just pumpkins to town. Ms Mitchell and Ms Spoonfeather, both art teachers at NMS, said they are waiting for the crisp early hours of October 25 to arrive, because that is when the scary creations made by their students will be set up on front lawn of the school for Newtown residents to scream, run, or laugh at.

The NMS Scarecrow Contest will be on view for residents from 10 am Saturday, October 25, until Friday, October 31. Like previous years, these scarecrows, made by nearly 120 students this year in groups of roughly three to four, are open to voting by Newtown residents — each vote costs $1 — and the scarecrows will be for sale. The winning top three groups will donate the money from the votes and the sale of their creations to a local charity of their choosing.

“Set up day is the best day of the entire school year,” said Ms Mitchell.

The eighth grade students participating in the scarecrow contest this year are made up of Art Enrichment students and Discovery students, who are in a program called GATES, and all students who also wish to participate. During the first few years of the contest only Discovery and Art Enrichment students were allowed to create the scarecrows.

Ballots will be printed in the October 25 issue of The Bee for people to vote on their favorite scarecrow, and ballots will also be available at the middle school. Ballots and the accompanying donations can be dropped off at NMS or at The Bee’s office. Students are volunteering for one hour each to collect ballots while the scarecrows are on view for the public.

According to Ms Mitchell, the idea of the groups is to have at least one Art Enrichment or GATES student on each team. By participating in the creation of the scarecrows, each student receives a gift A grade to be used at any point during the school year in their art class.

Ms Spoonfeather said Newtown residents can expect some really exciting sculptures this year. “Anything is possible when you are dreaming,” she said.

Lorraine Conway, who is in charge of the GATES program at NMS, said the students are excited about the scarecrows this year. “The students really take it seriously,” she said.

Ms Conway said the students all look forward to the annual competition, because they remember scarecrows from previous years, like the infamous Headless Horseman scarecrow from nine years ago.

“It’s very energizing and it really brings the community together,” said Ms Conway.

When building the sculptures, the groups have to keep the guidelines in mind, according to Ms Spoonfeather and Ms Mitchell. Each scarecrow must be visible from Queen Street, which means it must be larger than life, and able to withstand inclement weather. The student groups are also limited to spending no more than $20 each.

The groups all come up with different ideas for their scarecrow, and once they have chosen their design they then pass the idea by either Ms Spoonfeather, Ms Mitchell, or Ms Conway. Don Ramsey, the tech ed teacher at NMS, also helps the students with the technical design for their creations.

Ms Spoonfeather said residents can expect to be overwhelmed by this year’s creations.

Some Sneak Peeks

Each group is told to keep their designs top secret, but two groups were willing to share their ideas with The Bee before they have the chance to unveil their creation on October 25.

Bradley Fish, a GATES program student, said his group is on its way to the deadline. He and the members of his group — Jay Destories, William Carr, and Michael Vabner — came up with the idea for the Pac-Man chasing a ghost scarecrow last year when they were in seventh grade.

“It will be kind of funny to look at,” said Bradley, who added that it will not necessarily be a scary creation.

The Pac-Man video game, which came out in 1980, originally included ghosts, which Pac-Man, a yellow circle with a chomping mouth, ate or chased to conclude each level of the game.

The ghost in the game will be the same one Pac-Man will be chasing on the front lawn of the middle school, according to Bradley.

“I’m excited to be able to show other people,” said Bradley. He said his group has been enjoying building their scarecrow, and he hopes other groups are enjoying it as much as they are. Bradley said his group has been meeting generally on Saturdays.

In another group, Vikram Makayee, an eighth grade student in the GATES program, said the students he has talked to are excited about the project. His group has been building a drummer scarecrow, which will look like a man playing the drums.

“On Halloween everyone can dress up as anything they want,” explained Vikram. “We just tried to be different.”

The scarecrow is still in the works, but Vikram said he expects it to be larger than a normal person playing the drums would be.

It took some planning to come up with the drummer scarecrow. Vikram said his group’s first idea was to create a Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s running mate for President of the United States, scarecrow, because they were looking at current events for inspiration on the project.

The Sarah Palin scarecrow was turned down by the group, however, because they feared middle school students do not follow current events. Vikram said although the drummer might not be scary, he has high hopes for how people will react to it.

“I think the community will really like our scarecrow,” said Vikram, “because every year the scarecrows are a great way to decorate the town.”