Scarecrow in the Park returns to Bernardston with a new cast of straw-filled competitors

BERNARDSTON — Scarecrows of all shapes, faces and hobbies mingled in Cushman Park over the weekend for Scarecrow in the Park’s 21st year. Although many greeted visitors with a smile, the scarecrows were competitors, not friends, facing off for $100 prizes.

According to Brandon Grover, a member of the Bernardston Kiwanis Club who helped found the event in 2004, the contest saw 39 entries this year, filling the field with scarecrows snowmobiling, performing landscaping duties and cheerleading.

Along with the staple categories of Scariest, Funniest, Prettiest and Most Interesting Use of Materials, this year’s contest also included a Business category.

According to fellow festival organizer and Kiwanis Club member Mark Fitzpatrick, the contest first started amid a search for ways to repurpose Cushman Park after the baseball field moved to its current location. When past Kiwanis Club member Mike Dougherty returned from a trip to France, he raved about the scarecrows he spotted in the city, and Scarecrow in the Park was born.

“The festival is so unique, because we started as just scarecrows,” Grover said. Now, visitors from across New England travel for not only the scarecrows, but also the food trucks, craft vendors, live music, children’s activities, hay rides and the tractor parade. The fall festival raises money for the Kiwanis Club’s college scholarships for Pioneer Valley Regional School and Franklin County Technical School graduating seniors.

“We are a true community organization. We look out for all walks of life,” Grover said. “Our Kiwanis Club starts one child, one community at a time.”

“Families can come here and have fun,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that the fun comes at a low cost.

“It costs absolutely nothing to come in and look around and enjoy the day,” Grover said. With a chuckle, he continued, “If you want to buy something from our vendors, they’d love it.”

“It’s free family fall fun,” Bernardston resident Tara Stone said as she and her husband, Josh, were putting the finishing touches on their black cat scarecrow Friday morning, deliberating over the perfect curve for the cat’s tail.

Stone described her 12-year-old daughter Gwen as the brains behind the scarecrow. The cat idea came to Gwen after losing a close feline friend. To craft the scarecrow cat, the Stones soaked bittersweet vines from their backyard and bent them into the body of a cat.

“It’s just fun. We’ve hardly won a thing ever,” Stone said with a laugh. “Even when we have no time, we will literally turn a bale of hay into Spongebob.”

With a long list of scarecrows like Spongebob, the bride of Frankenstein, a hedgehog, the “It” clown, a “Minecraft” creature and a “Pokemon” character, Stone described Scarecrow in the Park as a family tradition.

Next to the cat, a scarecrow woman was opening a door to greet another scarecrow with a Meals on Wheels wagon. Bernardston Senior Center members Nora Bixby and Laurie Leese created this year’s Senior Center scarecrow to thank Meals on Wheels for their services to seniors and to honor LifePath’s annual walkathon, a fundraiser for Meals on Wheels.

Bixby’s neighbors and fellow Senior Center members donated hay, clothes for the scarecrows’ outfits and other supplies before Bixby and Leese weathered the week’s strong winds and brought the scarecrows to life.

“It’s a lot of fun and it’s rewarding,” Bixby said, adding that festival visitors often praise her hard work after the competition.

A 16-foot inflatable scarecrow waved festival visitors across the street to the Senior Center for coffee, soup, pastries and the donation raffle. According to Bernardston Senior Center Director Pam Parmakian, local businesses, artists, crafters and other Franklin County residents donated 126 raffle prizes this year.

“The community has been extremely generous,” Parmakian said between the packed tables of donations, from hats, pottery and quilts to gift cards and lottery trees.

To the right of the Senior Center’s scarecrow stood a board asking viewers, “Are you smarter than a fourth grader?” The creation was one of a few entries submitted by Bernardston Elementary School classes in accordance with the rotating contest theme for schools, which was math this year.

Below the question posed to passersby were four “logic puzzles,” or algebra problems with candy corns, black cats, ghosts and bats in the place of variables “x” and “y,” a favorite activity in the classrooms of fourth grade teachers Kellie Meuse and Samantha Barton. Over the past three weeks, the fourth graders painted and sewed the Halloween creatures before the students and their families turned the pieces into the finished display in Cushman Park after school on Wednesday.

A short drive from their homes, Scarecrow in the Park not only allows the children to play at Cushman Park with their friends, but also see the scarecrow they completed as a class, Meuse and Barton agreed.

“It’s been a tradition for Bernardston Elementary School since I began here,” Meuse said, adding that the fourth graders look forward to Scarecrow in the Park every year, asking her and Barton eagerly, “What are we going to do for our scarecrow?”

The following scarecrows were chosen as winners by a panel of three judges:

• Scariest — “Great Granny Grouch” by Jan Lepore and Diane Ellis.
• Funniest — “The Gym Reapers” by Mike Stennes.
• Prettiest — “Miss Scarecrow 2025” by Becky Snow Kowal.
• Business — “Blowouts Happen” by Pioneer Valley Tire.
• Most Interesting Use of Materials — “Oz” by Lily, Maya and Elise Laprade.
• Math — “Are You Smarter Than a Fourth Grader?” by students in Bernardston Elementary’s fourth grade classes taught by Kellie Meuse and Samantha Barton.
• Judges’ Choice — “Ryther House Inhabitants Keep Multiplying” by Emily Gilmore.