Judges choose festival’s top scarecrows
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ELKINS -- After being displayed on city streets for close to two weeks, Our Town Inc. and a group of impartial judges have selected the top scarecrows for this year's annual Scarecrow Festival.
After several weeks of standing outdoors, the elements begin to take a toll on the scarecrows' appearances. So, while they were still in top-notch condition, organizers felt the time was right to select this year's top straw figures.
"Not only Our Town, but some other people voted on the scarecrows they believed were the best and most creative ones this year," Our Town volunteer Bobbi Trimboli told The Inter-Mountain. "We took a vote from a lot of the committee members that helped set them up. And before the weather started taking a toll on them, we wanted to pick out the best ones."
The group decided to select the top nine. The best of the best included: Betsy Ross (Freedom Bank), Forest the Friendly Scarecrow (MountainHeart), Vintage Barbie (The Mossy Merchant), Hayden Strawburge (Natasha Evans and Liam, Baler and Sawyer), Ms. Butterscotch (Clara Poyner), Mary Me Blue (WV Caring), Bandit Andy (Elkins Metal Recycling), Ringo Scarr (Garver-Daniels family) and Dinah Devine (WVU Master Gardeners -- Randolph, Tucker and Upshur counties).
"We really do have some very outstanding scarecrows this year," said Trimboli. "There was a long list of the ones we selected and it could have been a lot longer. People did a really nice job on them this year and there are some really special ones that people put a lot of time into creating."
Our Town came up with enough material for 50 scarecrows to be placed downtown this year. When it was all said and done, 40 were spread across the immediate downtown area.
"The scarecrows are a lot of fun and there have been many people come to town to take a look at them," said Trimboli. "It has been another successful run of the scarecrows and this is the earliest we have ever put them out. We didn't want them out there during the Forest Festival when there is so much other stuff going on downtown."
The scarecrows will be taken down right before the start of the Mountain State Forest Festival on Sept. 30. Those wishing to keep their scarecrows will need to remove them before 9 a.m. that day.