Look out for one telling some wooden lies this year and keep your eyes peeled for a cheeky character sticking his bare backside in the air.
The annual Steveston Scarecrow Crawl is slowly, but surely, starting to show its ugly, scary, funny and just plain weird face around the village as October rolls into its second week.
Handmade scarecrows will stand guard outside many participating shops, restaurants and services during business hours, while others will peek out of store windows around the clock.
Some of the early season highlights of the month-long crawl — organized by the Steveston Merchants Association (SMA) — include a Pinocchio made by Kelly Krull, of Splash Toy Shop, out of driftwood from Garry Point Beach.
“I made him out of love so time doesn’t matter,” said Krull, when asked how long Pinocchio took to build.
And don’t be embarrassed if, when passing or frequenting O’Hare’s Gastropub, you bump into Paddy McCrackin, who has a penchant for mooning his pumpkin posterior at the regulars.
Up to 70 Steveston businesses are expected to take part in this year’s crawl, started by the SMA five years ago to inject life into the village’s quieter October season.
“Hopefully (it will be bigger this year), it does grow a little every year and people really put a lot of work into it and get very creative,” said Sarah Gordon, SMA marketing chair.
“It astounds me every year; I can’t imagine the hours they put in.
“The idea, when it was created, was for it to be low maintenance and get the whole village participating.”
And it’s not just SMA members that get involved, said Gordon, adding “the businesses love it, and I think the public loves it as well.
“The reason we did it is that, summer is obviously busy and September is good with people travelling without kids etc. But October is very much a grey area, and this keeps the month alive. The crawl gets people out of their houses and into the village to see something easy and fun.”
This year, said Gordon, businesses were invited to get into the fairytale theme, to coincide with a heavy filming schedule in the village for the hit TV show Once Upon A Time.
Near the end of the month, when there are more scarecrows out there, members of the public will be asked to vote for their “People’s Choice” on the Steveston Scarecrow Crawl Facebook page. And an artistic judging panel, including Richmond News publisher Pierre Pelletier, will also choose the best scarecrows.
