The History of the Meaford Scarecrow Invasion and Family Festival
1996 – 1999
The month-long scarecrow Invasion was started in 1996 by George & Janet Potopnyk, owners of Stedman’s department store, as a way to increase tourism and business in the downtown area. Within three years, it had become a popular local event in Meaford and was outgrowing its original mandate. The Invasion further developed under a committee of volunteers with a focus on children and families, led by Marilyn Morris, Head Scarecrow, who introduced a parade.
2002
Scarecrow Invasion tried to challenge the record for most scarecrows in the Guinness Book of World Records. Meaford created 2,221 scarecrows. The record was not achieved but the Invasion had caught our imaginations.
2009
The invasion inspired a short film No Room for a Scarecrow by Meaford Youth Film Studio, shown during the Meaford International Film Festival; the Scarecrow Theme Song and Meet Me in Meaford song were written and performed by local musician, Allan Johnson.
2011
The Invasion was recognized for voluntarism by receiving the June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for Volunteerism. In the same year, the invasion was incorporated as a non-profit organization and established a website in 2011, www.scarecrowinvasion.ca.
2013
Local author Linda Hamill released her book Scarecrow Invasion.
2014
The Scarecrow Invasion and Family Festival were the co-recipients of the Meaford Chamber of Commerce 2013 Tourism Award and winners of the award in 2014.
2016
The Meaford Scarecrow Invasion and Family Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary. The event was once again named among Festivals and Events Ontario (FEO) Top 100 for the third year in a row.
2017
Scarecrows celebrated Canada’s 150th with all things red and white. Canada’s great personalities past and current were depicted in vignettes on Station Hill, in market square, at the museum, and in businesses throughout the municipality.
2018
Long-term scarecrow volunteer-extraordinaire Mary Woods was presented with the Governor General Sovereign Medal for Volunteers. The theme in 2018: Scarecrows Go Western.
2019
The scarecrow invasion theme in 2019 was Book Invasion in recognition of Meaford’s commitment to build a new library on the corner of Sykes and Trowbridge Streets. Bognor joined the invasion for the first time with displays featuring children’s classic storybook characters like Harry Potter and Mary Poppins.
2020-2021 Cancelled due to the Covid pandemic
2022
The theme was Celebrating 25 years of the Scarecrow Invasion. Scarecrows were on display in downtown Meaford, Bognor, Annan, and Leith.
2023
With the invasion and festival at risk due to a lack of volunteers, several new board members “came aboard” and helped put on the successful invasion with the theme of “Pirates Come Ashore”.
