BUCHANAN — Terry Sulak spends most of her Thursdays and Fridays scouring garage sales for hats, coats, boots or anything else that can be used to fashion into a great scarecrow.

“It’s my life now,” said the Buchanan woman Wednesday while standing next to her friend, Judy Colpetzer, inside the scarecrow factory near Harding’s Market in Buchanan. “I spend way too much time at garage sales.”

Colpetzer also admits she spends a lot of time thinking about scarecrows.

Her specialty is turning a strand of rope or yarn into the beautiful locks onlookers will see on the scarecrows’ heads around town.

“They call me in when they need a hair-do,” said the Buchanan woman.

Sulak and Colpetzer are two of about two-dozen people responsible for bringing Buchanan’s annual downtown scarecrow display to life.

Colpetzer said they are often referred to as the “scarecrow ladies,” but members’ husbands can often be found working behind the scenes too.

“They don’t want to be known as scarecrow ladies,” she said.

These “scarecrow ladies” are members of the Buchanan Scarecrow Charities — a non-profit organization that raises money for good works by creating scarecrows that are sold to local businesses, which, in turn, display the straw men and women on the streets of downtown Buchanan.

The scarecrows are on display from about Labor Day to the beginning of November, acting as advertising for the businesses that purchase them, while giving the city a funky fall-time feeling that has been known to attract visitors both near and far.

“We’ve become known for them,” said Mary Fisher, Buchanan Scarecrow Charities president and co-creator of the scarecrow display. “People come to Buchanan looking to have a relaxing day and they walk the streets and have lunch and look at them. All over people are taking pictures by the scarecrows. People love them.”

 

Humble beginnings

A non-profit since 2013, Buchanan Scarecrow Charities actually began in 2007 as a way to raise money for the Buchanan Art Center.

Fisher said the idea was born when Carole Hedstrom — scarecrow charities vice president — saw a similar display during a trip to Canada.

After talking to Fisher about what she saw, Hedstrom and Fisher decided the display would work in Buchanan.

“I just thought it was a great idea,” said Fisher, who had experience building and selling scarecrows for more than 20 years at a pumpkin stand on the south end of South Bend, Indiana. “I knew how to make them and Carole knew how to pose them.”

The pair enlisted some help and went about the business of creating and selling scarecrows to Buchanan businesses.

They made 40 in the first year and brought in about $2,800 before expenses.

“Everybody loved them,” Fisher said. “We knew we had a good idea.”

Since then, the scarecrow charity has grown exponentially.

Fisher said last year’s effort generated roughly $14,000. The charity has used the money to donate to several local causes, including Red Bud Area Ministries programs, the local Easter egg hunt, Fernwood Botanical Garden and Nature Reserve and the Buchanan Senior Center, to name a few.

“That’s why we started the non-profit, so we could give money to many places in Buchanan — not just the art museum,” Fisher said.

Buchanan Scarecrow Charities begin working on the displays in January. The goal is create a spectacle bigger and better than the year before.

“We try to one up what we did before every year,” Fisher said. “I think we’ve done that again.”

 

Scarecrow workshops

For those wanting to get in on the fun, Buchanan Scarecrow Charities is offering two workshops where people can make and take home their own child-sized straw men. The workshops are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6 and Saturday, Sept. 13. The cost of $25 includes guidance and materials.

The workshop will be held at the scarecrow factory, 4720 Niles-Buchanan Road, behind Harding’s Market in Buchanan.

Buchanan Scarecrow Charities is also selling sunflower displays that can include personal messages, including memorials to a loved one or the announcement of an anniversary. The cost is $25. They are displayed downtown.

For more information, contact the organization by phone at (269) 845-6072 or look for them on Facebook.