We don’t suspect there will be a lot of crows hanging around the Orange County Great Park on Saturday, Oct. 20.That’s because officials are once again hosting a “Scarecrows in the Park” fundraiser, featuring an army of the straw-stuffed mannequins – including two from our own Alderwood Elementary School. As in years past, businesses and community organizations were challenged to construct creatively themed scarecrows for the competition, which raises money for low-income families and supports a children’s workshop series at the Great Park’s Farm + Food Lab. The figures will be on display at the lab beginning Saturday, Oct. 20, during the annual Pumpkin Harvest, and visitors can vote for their favorites, either in person or online. Alderwood will have a pair of scarecrows to check out, and while you might think of this as a pretty cool art project, it's also a pretty cool civics assignment. The entire third-grade class collaborated while exploring the theme, “Kids’ Choice 2012: If We Could Vote.” “All week we’ve been brainstorming qualities and traits we would value in the leader of our nation,” teacher Jennifer Bolinger said via email last week. “One of our scarecrows will be a female, and the other a male. The students will all take part in assembling, stuffing and completing the scarecrows in addition to creating and pinning a button with the quality they feel is very important for a leader to possess.” No word yet if the Alderwood duo will take part in next week’s final presidential debate. But for more information about this year’s “Scarecrows in the Park” event, click here.