Jamie Gatterdam (right) and James Hack, both of Bowling Green, check out scarecrow displays Saturday, October 1, 2016, during the Scarecrow Trail at Lost River Cave. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

The Lost River Cave’s fifth annual Scarecrow Trail fundraiser has piqued the interests of community organizations this year with a record amount of participation reaching 53 compared to only 28 participants at last year’s event.

Nicole Coomer, Lost River marketing and communication coordinator, believes the rise in participation has a lot to do with them lowering the entry fee prices and having a full-time summer intern who focused solely on sales. 

“It’s fun not only for the people putting the scarecrows together, but everybody coming on the trails too,” Coomer said. “My mom and I did one last year and I think it was more fun setting it up and putting it together than it was walking the trail. It’s a great team building thing.”

Coomer said there are some organizations that get super competitive with their scarecrow displays such as Community Education who got to the Trails at 11 a.m. Wednesday. They were there until 4:30 p.m. and then they came back Thursday to finish up. Their theme is the Roswell UFO incident, complete with a spaceship, an alien inside the craft and one outside of it. 

Coomer said Community Education has placed every year in the voting competition, but has never nabbed the coveted first place spot. The voting gives the community a chance to take part in the fundraiser by walking the trail and voting for their favorite scarecrow at the gift shop until Oct. 9. The winning organization receives a small prize. Prizes consist of boat tour passes and gift certificates to the gift shop.

Other displays consisted of Lawless Orthodontics creating a disassembled snowman scarecrow with a sign: “Do you Want to build a Scarecrow,” using the Disney movie “Frozen” as inspiration. Kids can be interactive with the display and try to put the snowman together.

New Beginnings Therapeutic Riding made a horse scarecrow out of tin cans and the Warren County Public Library created a whole display relating to the book and newly released movie, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.” This is the first year Anne Newton of Oakland Farms Riding Academy participated in the event and her display has horses and a black cat playing guitars and a frog playing the tambourine. 

“I like doing stuff like this and I like things for kids. My whole farm is kid-oriented and I’m just a kid at heart I guess,” Newton said. “I incorporate music with my horses and we do a lot of music at the farm.”

The property management team helps the organizations find their location on the trail and offers tools and assists them. Property Manager Justin Jennings said the event is great to have on the trails.

“Some people already have them pre-assembled … and some people need complete assistance,” Jennings said. “It’s a fun event, you get to see everybody’s creativity. It’s exciting to see what groups have come up with each year.”

Funds raised from the scarecrow trail go toward maintenance at Lost River Cave. The first year the nonprofit used the money for its Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom, which is only the second certified nature explore classroom in the state of Kentucky. Lost River Cave’s Scarecrow Trail is now open during tour hours and will be on display until October 31. The trail is free to the public.

— Follow faith/general assignments reporter Simone C. Payne on Twitter @_SimonePayne or visit bgdailynews.com.