St Robert’s Pannal have been spreading smiles with their recent Harvest Scarecrow Festival, which also brought in £2020 for the Harrogate District Foodbank. 
The theme of the Festival was giving thanks for ‘all the good gifts around us’, with people creating scarecrows to represent what they were thankful for.
The scarecrows were entered in a competition, put on a map and pictured on the church’s website.
Scarecrows were then displayed over a weekend in people’s front gardens, giving the people of the villages entertainment and fun, and encouraging generous giving to the Foodbank.
The Revd Abbie Palmer, curate at St Robert’s, said: “We had to cancel our annual Beer Festival this year - a great community event.
“In the current climate, I realised we needed a way to have some fun and be thankful this harvest.
“The vicar had the idea of a scarecrow nativity several months ago so we decided to move this forward and the Harvest Scarecrow Festival was born. 
“Thanks to the amazing efforts of our two volunteer organisers, the event has been an enormous success.
“It’s been so popular, I think it will become a regular date in our calendar.
“We saw everything from a Minecraft ‘Steve’ to Mr Tickle, from Florence Nightingale to Fireman Sam.
“And even though I was in isolation during the festival, I could still enjoy it online.
“Great for participants, great for the community and great for the foodbank. A truly great harvest!”
The scarecrows can still be seen on the church website- please click here to see them.