KINGSTON — After last weekend’s scarecrow-making party at Farm Kitchen, the area’s notoriously loud blackbirds should be avoiding the North End this fall.

About 160 people showed up Saturday to make 81 scarecrows within a three-hour period — a number which had organizer Anna Joe Savage in disbelief.

“It’s crazy right now,” she said as she took a second between unloading bales of hay into the facility. “So thankful it’s not raining.”

But deemed a success, Savage and her co-workers are already planning how to improve their logistics for next year’s party.

“People just ended up having so much fun,” she said. “When you have an event where people are enjoying themselves, you want to continue the tradition.”

About a one-third of the crowd was from the Kitsap County chapter of the Western Washington Volunteers of America’s Mentoring Children of Promise program, where mentors and their young friends got to make their own figures.

“This is the first time I’ve ever made a scarecrow,” said Promise program member 5-year-old C.J. who was working with his mentor Roger Lauen. “My sister’s is going to be scary — no crows are going to be on my sister’s.”

Others, including the VanCleave family of Poulsbo were busily making three scarecrows for their front yard.

“We do the Christmas thing here and my wife saw this and had to come to it,” said Chuck VanCleave, who was stuffing an arm with hay.

“Just spend time with the family, that’s the success,” added his wife Annette VanCleave, who was taking pictures of her three children and husband.

The process started with painting faces on pillow cases, then stapling old jeans and flannel shirts or jackets onto a frame before stuffing the scarecrow full of hay. The head with the painted face was then tied on, and with the addition of a hat and gloves, each family had a very scary looking figure for their gardens.

“Everyone is painting great faces,” Savage said. “From vampires to tigers — you’ve got all the scarecrows you’ll ever need.”