BALLSTON SPA — The tip jar at The Coffee Planet offered this choice of preference on Monday: Saratoga’s painted horses or Ballston Spa’s painted chairs. Early results had the chairs winning, and not by a nose, either.

The first 43 of what will be more than 100 decorated Adirondack-style rocking chairs went on display around the village this past weekend, as the “Ballston Rocks” campaign officially launched.

“The reception has been tremendous,” said Cliff Baum, owner of The Coffee Planet and president of the Ballston Spa Business and Professional Association, the organization behind the fundraiser.

The sturdy wooden chairs have all been individually creatively decorated, often by professional artists, in a program that mimics the painted fiberglass horse fundraiser in Saratoga Springs a few years ago.

Carol Hotaling of Milton, whose untiring activities supporting U.S. troops abroad have earned her the nickname “The Yellow Ribbon Lady,” has sponsored a chair covered with the patriotic ribbons.

“The more yellow ribbons to remember the troops by, the better,” Hotaling said.

After being photographed and cataloged Friday, the “Yellow Ribbon chair” has been put on display next to the flagpole at Veterans’ Park on Low Street.

“I took some people to see it yesterday, and they said it looked great,” Hotaling said Monday. “The plaque on the back of the chair says, “’Til the Troops Come Home.”

Hotaling’s friend artist Carolyn Abrams of East Greenbush did the decorating over the last two months. As sponsor and artists, their names also appear on the plaque, and each chair bears a similar plaque.

Sponsors paid $100 for the chair, and then were free to decorate them any way they wanted.

“There’s all kinds of creativity at work in this,” Baum said.

Saratoga Bridges, the program for the developmentally disabled, created a chair with a set of wheels, so that it can “rock and roll.” That’s on display in front of the county office building.

Others have children’s handprints, or favorite cars, or flower prints.

Some of the chairs are on the porches of private homes, while others are at local businesses or in the local parks, where anyone can sit in them.

Baum said 43 chairs are on display now, and more will be added in the coming weeks as artists finish their projects.

A map of chair locations and a catalog are being created, and in June there will be judging. Some of the chairs may be auctioned at the end of the summer to benefit the Business and Professional Association’s programs.

Just in the first two days, Baum said, he’s seen people talking about and photographing the chairs outside his business.

“It’s a very exciting campaign, and one of the best things about it is the community involvement,” Baum said.