After adjusting a shirt on a youthful-looking humanoid, she walked around her other creations in this vacant, grassy lot, noting that each is depicted doing something fun: One plays with a hula hoop, another ziplines between trees. And two more play the board game Twister — no easy feat for a couple of stiffs.
“I just felt the world needed to smile and laugh a little bit more, and I wanted to bring out the kid in all of us,” Henderson said, explaining her vision.
Her creation, titled "Fun and Games," is the main exhibit at this year’s Cambria Scarecrow Festival, an annual event that begins Oct. 1. During the free monthlong event, dozens of scarecrows appear at local businesses or lots in the towns of Cambria and San Simeon. Sprinkled about along this Highway 1 town, some of the scarecrows have picturesque views of pine trees, rocky shorelines and mountain backdrops. Others welcome visitors to quaint shops and restaurants.
The festival began after Cambrians Joseph and Taylor Hilden witnessed a scarecrow festival in Novia Scotia in 2008.
“Walking down Main Street in Mahone Bay, and seeing the scarecrow displays for the first time was a life-changing event for me,” Taylor Hilden told the San Luis Obispo Tribune. “I was filled with such joy and happiness. I felt like a kid at Disneyland.”
They launched the Cambria Scarecrow Festival in 2009 with 30 scarecrows. This year, the event features more than 200 strawmen and women.
The scarecrows channel the Addams Family, Peter Pan, and members of the rock band Kiss. There’s a scarecrow hippy, scarecrow aliens and a scarecrow puppeteer. Some dance, some sing. Most just kind of stand around, which has always been the point of the scarecrow.
While some of the scarecrows are your more traditional hayseeds, others — like Peter Pan, created by artist Phil Hauser — are works of art.
“That scarecrow is something you’d see at Disneyland,” Henderson said.
After moving from Dinuba in California's Central Valley to Cambria two years ago, Henderson noticed a woman building a scarecrow in her front yard before last year’s festival.
She volunteered for last year’s festival. Then in March, she submitted an ambitious vision for this year’s event. Once approved, she and friends got to work — and it was all Fun and Games.
“We started in May and ended in September, so that was five months working on this,” she said. “Five days a week from 10 to 2.”
Some of her scenes contain a slice of humor — such as an older man using a cane to cheat at Twister — while others are interactive, including one encouraging young visitors to play hopscotch.
During Henderson’s short stop, several visitors arrived to walk through the display. Seeing visitors enjoy the scarecrows, Henderson said, is a big motivation.
“It absolutely makes my heart smile,” she said.
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