By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY—Rainbow Fish, Paddington Bear and Chester Raccoon are just a few of the characters that have greeted drivers on Valleydale Road in front of Inverness Elementary School for the past week. Those three characters, along with 26 more, are part of the IES PTO’s annual scarecrow fundraiser.

A 12-year tradition at the school, the scarecrow project incorporates the entire IES community and surrounding North Shelby community.

The theme of this year’s project is book characters. Each of the school’s 28 classrooms and the LEAPS program designed a scarecrow based off of a character in a book.

“Each classroom chose a book and read the book as a class,” IES PTO President Amy Tubre said.

Several scarecrows even display book reports written by their classes.

After classrooms completed their designs, parents worked together to construct the scarecrows in front of the school. Local businesses and other members of the community pitched in by sponsoring scarecrows for $50 each.

“This is just a fun way to start the year,” Tubre said. “Everybody acts stressed at the beginning, but they always come up with something fabulous.”

Money raised by the scarecrow fundraiser supports the PTO’s many initiatives at the school, from redoing the playground to helping teachers purchase classroom supplies and teaching necessities.

“Right now, we’re upgrading our playground, but we do a lot of things for teacher development,” Tubre explained.

Although the scarecrows will be taken down during the week of Oct. 5, they won’t disappear. The IES scarecrows will be featured as part of the decor for the Birmingham Zoo’s Boo at the Zoo, and will remain at the zoo for all of October and half of November, Tubre said.