NMS Scarecrow Sculpture Contest

Winners Announced

By Eliza Hallabeck

Newtown’s sweet tooth showed this week when the Newtown Middle School Scarecrow Sculpture “Candy” won the most votes in the yearly NMS Scarecrow Sculpture Contest, which was on view from Friday, October 23, to Friday, October 30.

The NMS Scarecrow Sculpture Contest is a yearly community project for eighth grade Art Enrichment students, eighth grade Discovery students, who are in the GATES program, and any other interested eighth grade students. Each scarecrow is created by a group of students, typically no more than four or five.

Each year the three projects that bring in the most votes split the money raised from $1 votes, and donate the money they win to a charity of their choosing.

The contest raised $737.10 this year. “Candy” received 50 percent of that money, $368.55; the second place scarecrow, “Junk Man,” took 30 percent of the money, $221.13; and the third place scarecrow, “Cat in Hat,” took 20 percent of the money, $147.42.

“Candy” group members Rachel Zambernardi, Lindsay Fuori, Kate Butera, and Christina Badiola plan to donate their group’s winning money to a food pantry.

“Junk Man” scarecrow group members Connor Anderson, Dan Spillane, Kyle Humber, and Alec DaPra plan to donate their group’s winning money to the Newtown Dog Pound.

“Cat in The Hat” scarecrow group members Brittany Pearson and Ryanne Duffy also plan to donate their group’s money to the Newtown Dog Pound.

When building the sculptures, the groups have to keep the guidelines in mind, according to NMS Art teachers Arlene Spoonfeather and Claudia 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.

“We were just thinking of ideas and we thought candy would be cool with Halloween coming up,” said “Candy” group member Christina Badiola. Christina said the scarecrow helped scare away world hunger with the winning money going to a food pantry.

Christina said the group got together every weekend to work on the project, and on some weekends the group worked together twice. She “Candy” was constructed from wood and donated material from Chintz-N-Prints on South Main Street.

The sculpture gained its name from four giant lollypops, assorted M&Ms, a giant Gummi Bear, a box of Junior Mints, and a Hershey Kiss the students created as their scarecrow.

“My favorite was the Junior Mints,” said Christina, “and we thought the lollypops would just be pretty.”

“Candy” group member Rachel Zambernardi said when she learned her group had won first place, “I was surprised, because a lot of the scarecrows were really nice as well.”

Rachel said other than her group’s creation, her favorite was the rubber ducks created by Annie Beier, Bethany Dubois, and Rebecca Vodola.

As a recommendation to students who will be participating in next year’s NMS Scarecrow Sculpture Contest, Rachel said for them to make sure to manage their time wisely.

“Plan what parts you are going to do each day,” said Rachel, “and try to get as much of it done as possible.”

From the “Junk Man” Scarecrow group, member Dan Spillane said the group met once to twice a week to work on their creation.

“The idea actually came from Kyle Humber in my group,” said Dan. “He had a pile of junk in his garage that had been sitting there for a while.”

Dan said he was grateful his group’s project came in second place in the contest, because they worked really hard on creating the “Junk Man.”

“Our goal was to get people to notice that we recycled a lot of the things,” said Dan.

“Junk Man” group member Alec DaPra said there were three air conditioners and other “junk” items found around group members’ houses that was used to create the project.

“We also got some stuff from the dump,” said Alec.

One of the air conditioners used to construct the scarecrow came from a dump, he said.

To next year’s group of eighth grade students working on the NMS Scarecrow Sculpture Contest, Alec said, “Think it over before you sign up, so you know what you are going to do. And try to think of something original.”