Each summer, Janessa Pretorius spends countless hours preparing crafts and projects for Wellesley’s fall fair.
![Janessa Pretorius shows off a decorated anchor and a knit scarf she made for the 2014 Wellesley NEH Fall Fair. [Scott Barber / The Observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/post_stolenscarecrow2.jpg)
Last year Janessa submitted some 50 exhibits, including baked goods, flowers and a K’NEX ferris wheel.
The 13-year-old Wellesley native was so excited when the fair committee announced a new competition for 2014: homemade scarecrows.
“I took two bases, with one (scarecrow) standing up and one sitting and stuffed them with a broom,” Janessa explained. “They are also stuffed with giant body pillows – I did it because I love the fair.”
The two scarecrows were dressed up and positioned to be shaking hands through the fence on the corner of the Pretorius’ property, representing the fair’s theme, the “international year of family farming: hands across the fence.”
She set it up on August 19, ready to be judged by the fair committee and potentially win a first prize of $50.
But less than a week later, the scarecrows were gone.
“Janessa put a lot of time and more than $50 of her own to put together the display,” her mom Jeanette explained. “Janessa loves being involved in the fair, so this opportunity for creativity was right up her alley. You can imagine our family’s frustration when we discovered Saturday morning that her scarecrow display had been stolen. We had attached the display to our fence, hoping by making it not easy to just remove that people would respect her work. But unfortunately the thief took our fence apart to pull the zip-tied scarecrows off. They even took the lawn chair that the scarecrow was sitting in and attached to. All that remained Saturday morning was the Wellesley North-Easthope Fall Fair sign, a boot and a glove.”
The scarecrow competition was intended to promote the fair (signs are displayed alongside) in a unique way. Some 29 scarecrows have been displayed around Wellesley, many of which are easily spotted in front of businesses along Queens Bush Road. Even more are expected at a second competition to be held during the fair September 9-10.
Unfortunately, Janessa won’t be able to take part, which is very disappointing for the Pretorius family.
“If they bring it back, she could still redo it,” Jeannette said. “She loves these competitions. They run a best-dressed home event every Christmas and she made an upside down snowman with its feet up in the air – people loved that crazy snowman.”
The whole ordeal is very odd, Jeanette added, because, who steals a scarecrow?
“We thought that maybe some kid saw the neon hoodie (worn by one of the scarecrows) and thought ‘hey, that’s pretty cool.’ And the farmer (scarecrow) had overalls on and those are cool things right now. I thought that people might want to take it apart, but not take the whole thing.”
Jeanette reported the incident to the police, who told her that even though the crime may seem minor, it is important for the public to supply police with information so they can make sure to stem vandalism before if grows into a larger issue.
