Newtown Middle School’s top winning Eighth Grade Scarecrow Contest groups recently announced the charities to which they will donate their winnings.

Voting for this year’s contest was open to the public October 20 and 21. Residents voted for their favorite scarecrow with a donation of $1 per vote. NMS announced its winning entries for this year’s Eighth Grade Scarecrow Contest on October 22.

Each year, participating eighth grade students have been tasked with creating a larger-than-life scarecrow that can withstand Mother Nature. Scarecrows are sited on the front lawn of the Queen Street school. The event is an annual fundraiser for local charities. Students in Art Enrichment classes are charged with completing a scarecrow as part of a class project, and other eighth grade students can participate, too. NMS art teachers Leigh Anne Coles and Kristen Ladue oversaw the contest.

There were 26 scarecrows on display at the school for this year’s contest, and it raised more than $1,500 for local charities.

Two groups tied for third place. Each group earned $196.50 to donate to a charity. The creators of The Genie from Aladdin, or scarecrow 30 — Paige Armstrong, Madison Singlak, Addie Sullivan, and Annabel Saunders —announced they will give their earnings to the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The creators of the Save the Turtles, or scarecrow five — Ayla Ryder, Angie Romano, and Kaite Daoust — decided to donate their winnings to the Pacific Marine Life Foundation.

Cate Dalton, Allie Kost, Kayleigh Troy, and Skylar Lewis created the second place CD Fish, or scarecrow 27, and they were undecided as of November 1 as to which charity to give their $393 winnings.

In first place, the Back to the Future DeLorean and Marty McFly, or scarecrow one, creators Adam Uhde and Alamin Islam announced they will donate their $786 to two charities. Alamin plans to give his half to the Lupus Foundation of America, and Adam plans to donate his winnings to the C.H. Booth Library’s makerspace.