New Jersey town gets into Halloween spirit with scarecrow contest
BRANCHVILLE, New Jersey (WABC) -- Dozens of new faces are suddenly popping up in Branchville, New Jersey just in time for Halloween, to compete in the town's annual pumpkin scarecrow contest.
From Snow White and the Ghostbusters, to Goldilocks and Sesame Street, .nearly 80 families and businesses have joined in the fun so far and that number is still climbing.
"I'm still getting calls from people wanting to join in," said Jeanne Heinke, who came up with the idea after seeing something similar in a small town in Massachusetts.
For the past three years the contest has gotten bigger and better with two of Branchville's biggest employers also getting in on the action with a Yankees Field of Dreams featuring Aaron Judge and of course the classic Wizard of Oz characters.
"It's awesome," said Roseann Naldi of Selective Insurance. "It brought all of us together, all the different departments participated and it was a lot of fun...great morale for the company."
"I think that the creativity is great," said Brooke Symons of Selective Insurance. "It brings the whole community together and whenever I go on walks with my coworker we always get excited to see which new scarecrow is outside."
With this being a contest and you may be wondering what the prize is. For businesses it's bragging rights, but for homes who got their creative juices flowing, there's cash up for grabs.
"If you can bring the community together and our churches got involved, people helped seniors do one...and it has really brought us together," said Heinke.
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