HAVE FUN and at the same time Donate to: 

·         North Brookfield PTA

·         Friends of the NB Senior Center

·         Hearts for Heat

·         Heart to Heart

·         Or any organization of your choice. Just tell Bemis where to donate!

Make a Scarecrow, Make a Difference

The folks at Bemis Farms Nursery would like to help you raise funds for your organization with hardly any effort, and little to no cost.

WHAT’S THE CATCH?

There is no catch. On September 19^th and 20^th, we are hosting an event called Scarecrows for Solutions. At this event, participants will make a life-sized scarecrow for a fee of $15, ALL OF WHICH WILL BE DONATED TO THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION OF THE PARTICIPANT’S CHOICE. You will get a check for 15 dollars times the number of people who chose your organization, along with the names and addresses of those donors (should they choose to offer it) in case you want to send them a thank-you note.  If you would like to be on the list of organizations participants may choose from, all you have to do is let us know.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

Along with the obvious philanthropic reason, we are always looking for unique ways to get people to our nursery in the fall.  We would like to have more people see the charming “New England Fall” displays we create at our nursery with our home-grown mums, flowering kale, ornamental grasses and other fall decorations along with our locally grown pumpkins and corn stalks. So we are happy to provide scarecrow clothes, wooden frames, hay for stuffing the scarecrows, a few modest embellishments, and a nice, dry place to make a big mess and have a lot of fun! We believe the modest expense on our part will be repaid by exposure to our nursery. We think that this is a win-win situation, and hope that you will consider participating.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you choose to, you can also promote this event within your organization to increase the number of people donating to your cause. You can promote the event however you would like: word of mouth, email, announcements, etc. We can also help you create a flyer to hand out. (See enclosed sample.) The details of the event are as follows:

HOW IT WORKS

Pre-registration and pre-payment is required, and may be done via phone, fax, or mail.  A registration form is available at www.BemisFarmsNursery.com/scarecrow.htm. Participants write on the registration form whether they will be attending on Saturday, September 19^th or Sunday, September 20^th, but may show up anytime between 10am and 4pm. When they come to make their scarecrow, they will get a sticker, which they attach to a sheet marked with the name of a participating organization.  We will add up the number of stickers on each sheet, and send a check to each organization for 15 dollars times the number of stickers.

This is the second year we are offering this event.  In our first year we were able to raise over $2000, which was split among 13 different organizations.  The Spencer Animal Control’s cat shelter received the biggest amount, over $400, and we simply put their name on one of the sheets because a participant asked us to add them to the list without them even knowing it! Imagine the response had they been aware ahead of time and were able to help spread the word.  Speaking of which, this event will be promoted on 40,000 color flyers in the newspaper, to our mailing list, as well as over the internet and radio.

Last year both children and adults made over 125 scarecrows, and a great time was had by all.  In anticipation of this year’s event, we started collecting clothing back in April!  We hope you’ll join us. If you have any questions, please give us a call.

Sincerely,

Ed and Tina Bemis