My little sleepy town of Nottingham will display scarecrows for the first time this fall. For this tiny town of less than 5,000, our town will have the most excitement its ever seen when these hay-filled scarecrows start to pop up all over town. The ladies of Nottingham Women’s Club (NWC) engaged with the scarecrow project as a way to raise money for scholarships. Each year, the NWC awards about $2,000 to a Nottingham student who plans to attend college.
I was first exposed to New Hampshire scarecrows in the town of Chester, where “The Village People,” as the locals call them, are nothing short of famous.
The town of Chester will add 130 new scarecrows to the 600 that have adorned the town over the past six years. This amount of fall fun attracts a lot of visitors, including tour buses. The Village People will be out and about town this year, thanks to work by the Chester Historical Society.
As first-time scarecrow hosts, we in Nottingham visited Chester to learn from their successes.
The people of Chester were gracious enough to share with us some tips and tricks for pulling this off. We witnessed them cut bolts of burlap fabric and stitch them into heads, and then hand-paint each with a different expression. The women from NWC all came together in our own town’s community center to take part in a scarecrow-making workshop. To my surprise, we were able to crank out 31 scarecrow heads in about five hours!
In Nottingham, we sold 28 scarecrow heads and stakes to organizations or businesses that will each choose a theme that showcases their purpose, personality, or brand.
The town will display its scarecrows from October 2 – 30. Look for pictures of the scarecrows on the NWC Scarecrow Fundraiser Contest Facebook page. The NWC will publish a scarecrow map on that same Facebook page, so you can take a self-guided tour to visit the scarecrows in town. On the interactive map, you can learn a little about the scarecrow and the business or group who created it. A team of Nottingham residents (along with NWC members) 
will vote for their favorite scarecrows; the winners will be announced on October 31.
This past week, 10 of the 31 scarecrows have already popped up around town. All are scheduled to be ready on Sunday, October 9.
The response on the Facebook page so far has been incredible! I can already see the 
community building benefit this project has. It’s so much fun for all ages. Some of the entrants so far are Wild Argan Annie of Argan Republic, and Matt the Scarecrow of Curry Automotive.
The scarecrow tradition began more than 30 years ago in towns like Jackson and Plainfield, but in recent years has taken off in popularity. Now more than 10 New Hampshire towns will have scarecrows or pumpkin people on display throughout the month of October.
New Hampshire towns celebrating fall with scarecrows:
- JAFFREY will provide the materials for people to make their own scarecrow for $5 on October 8, at their event Scarecrows on the Common.
- ENFIELD displays its scarecrows along the Northern Rail Trail, as well as around town. Enfield Village Association organizes the effort.
- PLAINFIELD has over 300 pumpkin people around town this month, while
- JACKSON will host Return of the Pumpkin People along with NORTH CONWAY.
- The NEW LONDON Recreation Department said, “Expect to see pumpkin people.”
- The AUBURN Historical Society is trying scarecrows for the first time this year, too!
- LINCOLN’S Hobo Railroad boasts politically themed cornstalk critters this year.
- The MERRIMACK Lion’s Club is getting into the fundraising effort for diabetes research.
- MILFORD will include scarecrow making in its Pumpkin Festival, which takes place from October 7-9.
- Scarecrows can also be seen very year in HAMPSTEAD and NASHUA.
