By Dusti Lewars-Morton
Cooler temperatures and a shift in the color of trees, heralds the start of autumn. To welcome in the harvest season, the Vicksburg Chamber of Commerce will host its first annual Scarecrow Competition this year.
“I’m very excited about decorating downtown for the Historic Village Harvest Festival and the fall season,” said Tanya DeLong. “We, as a Chamber, believe that decorations and competition will encourage people to venture downtown to check out all of the neat shops and restaurants Vicksburg has to offer. Vicksburg is the best kept ‘secret’ in Kalamazoo County, and we’re trying to spread the word!”
Interested businesses, clubs, organizations, and individual people were invited to come by Tanya’s Girl Garage last week to pick up cornstalks donated by Fritz Farms, to be used in their scarecrow creations. Participants have their choice of any green lamp posts in downtown Vicksburg on Main Street and Prairie Street for placement of their art, with the requests made that everything be up by Sunday, September 29, maintained by their creators, and taken down by Saturday, November 1.
“We’re hoping for about a dozen entries in the contest,” Tanya continued. “Ideally, we’d love to see every lamp post in the downtown area decorated with a scarecrow!” The displays were judged by Harvest Festival attendees, and a special trophy created by Tanya was awarded to the winner.