A group of residents from St. John’s Lutheran Home will be defending their title at the Minnesota State Fair.

For the third year in a row, the residents have earned grand champion on their scarecrow entry at the Freeborn County Fair. Their entries also earned grand champion honors at the Minnesota State Fair the last two years.

This year, St. John’s resident Don Searles had the idea to make the nursing home’s scarecrow entry look like Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. They decided to put the scarecrows in a Model T Ford.

“That’s the way we saw them a lot,” Searles said.

To make the scarecrows, the residents recycled the bodies from last year’s Ole and Lena entry. They used gourds for the heads and Chandra Sather, daughter of St. John’s Master Gardener Nancy Sather, painted their faces and the car.

“It wouldn’t have happened without them,” Carla Reichel of the St. John’s staff said of the Sathers.

It took the residents three weeks to get their entry ready, they said.

Resident Joe Probst got donations for the project from Root River Hardwoods, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Alamco Wood Products, Bob Probst, Stevens Window & Hardware, Total Glass & Lock and Dwayne Anderson.

The residents hope to add a few more touches to the entry before the state fair, including windshield wipers, paint inside the fenders and adding a gas cap.

The other idea for this year’s scarecrow entry at the nursing home was Hansel and Gretel. However, after putting the choice to vote by residents, Laurel and Hardy won by a landslide.