Voting for the Seventh Annual Newtown Parks & Recreation Scarecrow Contest will open on Saturday.

Well ahead of that, however, individuals, families, businesses, sports teams, and community organizations have all responded to this year’s invitation to adopt a lamp post within the Fairfield Hills campus and design a scarecrow to go near the post.

The first entries for 2026 arrived on October 1 or 2, when Rotary Club of Newtown and a group calling itself Meeting of the Mindless put their creations in place.

Scarecrows will continue arriving until October 23.

Voting will open the following morning, October 24. It will remain underway until Thursday, October 29, with the public invited to vote for their favorites in the categories of Most Original, Newtown Pride, and People’s Choice.

Voting will all be done electronically, with links sent via e-mail and posted on the department’s Facebook page. Votes are limited to one per person.

The winners will be announced Friday, October 30.

Winners have a chance to win a Summer 2027 Family Pool & Beach Membership Pass or assorted tier prizes donated by local businesses.

Nineteen groups created scarecrows for the Sixth Annual Scarecrow Contest last year. The Burton Family took home the award for Fan Favorite, with kids and adults alike gushing over their scarecrow overtaken by a giant red snake.

Most Original went to the Dunne family for their skeleton family bike ride. An adult skeleton smiled on his bike ride with his two skeleton children, one sitting comfortably in a child carrier while the other hung on for dear life.

A Newtown Nighthawks scarecrow by the Zanghi-Blank families won Newtown Pride. The iconic local mascot was decked out in a Newtown Nighthawks shirt, with a sign reading “Let’s Go Hawks” hanging above it.