Scarecrow contest goes on in Costa Mesa after resident strives to keep it alive
Originally, all Olga Reynolds wanted to do was make a scarecrow.
About six weeks ago, the Costa Mesa resident — who hails from “Westside, best side,” as she puts it — dropped by the Costa Mesa Historical Society to see how to enter the scarecrow contest in this year’s Scarecrow and Pumpkin Festival at Fairview Park.
That wasn’t possible, Reynolds was told, because there wasn’t going to be a festival.
“They go, ‘It’s not happening this year,’” she said. “And I said, ‘Whoa, you didn’t tell anybody.’”
The story could have ended there. Instead, Reynolds rolled up her sleeves.
She and her group, OC Earth Stewards, have volunteered to present the scarecrow contest this weekend in collaboration with the Costa Mesa Parks and Community Services Department.
“When we [participated in] the scarecrow contest last year, it was just such a community-building thing,” Reynolds said. “It was something we had a lot of fun doing and people who participated had a lot of fun. We wanted to continue doing it.”
In recent years, the Orange County Model Engineers group has organized the festival at Goat Hill Junction in Fairview Park, where the group operates ridable trains.
The event typically featured train rides, pumpkin picking and other activities such as face painting. Residents also were invited to craft scarecrows to go head-to-head in a contest.
However, the model engineers decided to skip this year, according to Parks and Community Services Director Justin Martin.
“They just wanted to take a year off and reevaluate the presence of the festival,” Martin said. “It’s come and gone throughout the years. It’s not been a constant thing throughout the course of time.”
The event was originally held from 1938 to 1941. It was revived in 2013 in honor of Costa Mesa’s 60th anniversary.
Upon hearing that the 2017 festival was canceled, Reynolds reached out to the model engineers, and the group agreed to allow scarecrows to be displayed this weekend when the trains will be running, she said.
Scarecrows will be displayed from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Goat Hill Junction.
Reynolds worked with Martin and her daughter — city Parks and Recreation Commissioner Arlis Reynolds — to hammer out the logistics.
“We’re really grateful that both Justin Martin and Commissioner Reynolds were able to iron out all the necessities to make this happen,” Olga Reynolds said.
This year’s city-sponsored affair won’t feature the bells and whistles of past offerings — “no vendors, no entertainment, just a community display of scarecrows,” Martin said.
Olga Reynolds said she’s heard from several individuals and groups interested in submitting a scarecrow for the contest. The goal is 20 entries.
Tess Bernstein, the festival’s former chairwoman, praised Reynolds for coordinating the contest on such a tight time frame.
“That’s great,” said Bernstein, second vice president of membership at the Historical Society. “I couldn’t fathom how she was going to pull it off in six weeks, five weeks — getting people to enter the contest, getting prizes, getting the awards. That’s just for that day.”
From Reynolds’ perspective, this won’t be a one-time endeavor.
“Next year, we’ll be coming full-blown,” she said. “We’ll know exactly how to tackle it, so we can do it better.”
For more information, email ocearthstewards@gmail.
Twitter @LukeMMoney
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