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Hundreds join in Zombie Crawl
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
Hundreds of zombies with gaping wounds, stiff- legged walks and blank expressions crossed the big red Spring Commons bridge leading from Mahoning Avenue to downtown Saturday night, then followed West Federal Street east to Central Square.
People all along the route took pictures, pointed and laughed.
“I think this is great,” Donna Ferraro of Austintown said as she drove past the former Anthony’s on The River and saw the 500 or so people begin the Halloween-inspired Zombie Crawl.
This was the second year for the crawl, a concept popular in many larger cities, according to Murad Shorrab, a member of the committee that organized the event.
Shorrab called the 2010 crawl a success as he stood in Central Square just after awards were given out for best zombie bride, best zombie celebrity (Marilyn Monroe) and best zombie kid.
Shorrab estimated about 550 zombies took part this year — roughly triple the number who participated last year.
Events began at 3 p.m. at Oakhill Cemetery, where artists from the Oakland Center for the Arts helped get Zombie Crawl participants ready by applying fake blood to their skin and clothing. There was no charge, but donations were accepted.
Shorrab said he was pretty sure that double the people were going to participate in this year’s crawl because of the response that had been seen on crawl’s website.
Shorrab said he expected to at least double the 185 people who crawled in the 2009 event. The committee was able to get the bridge closed down for the start of the Zombie Crawl this year as the zombies left the staging area in the parking lot of the closed Anthony’s on the River.
Funding of $3,300 for the event came from the budget of the director of downtown events.
Shorrab and fellow organizer Paul Hagman said zombie walks are being done around this time of year in larger cities across the United States, with the one in Atlanta being the biggest one.
Hagman said Youngstown is fortunate to have a cool, old cemetery so close to downtown that can be incorporated into the event.
Oakhill Cemetery features the graves and monuments of members of the best-known families in Youngstown, especially during the 1800s, such as the Arms, Wick, Beecher, Tod, Booth, Brown, Maag, Pollock and Bonnell families.
By offering self-guided tours of the cemetery until dark, the Zombie Crawl also encourages area residents to learn about the history of Youngstown while also getting into the mood for the crawl.
The cemetery, a beautiful, hilly place across Oak-hill Avenue from the former Southside Medical Center, was appropriately spooky Saturday afternoon, hours before it got dark, as cloudy conditions prevailed.
Crawl tourists were treated to the sound of crickets and a backdrop of colorful foliage as they navigated the hills.
Michael Skruck, 20, and his sister, Kerrigan Skruck, 14, both of Hubbard, said the cemetery didn’t interest them much, but the Zombie Crawl was going to be fun.
The Skrucks were covered in fake blood as they wandered around the cemetery. Michael participated in similar events in Cleveland and Pittsburgh last year, he said.
“I grew up on horror movies, so this is sort of amazing to me,” he said. “You get to dress up and act like idiots. You see the movies and you want to be a ghoul and get to growl. It’s a safe environment.”
Kerrigan added, “It’s fun just to dress up. It’s surprising more people don’t like to do it — pouring blood on people.”
Megan Slick of Youngstown arrived at Oakhill in a hospital jacket covered in fake blood. Her 6-year-old daughter, Leyna, had on a “mad surgeon” outfit.
“I’ve been a horror-movie fan my whole life, so during Halloween, I kind of go a little crazy,” Megan said.
The two had gone to the Fear Forest Haunted Hayride on Friday night just south of the Tod Avenue-Salt Springs Road intersection in Lordstown.
Leyna said she enjoyed “when the monsters came out” at Fear Forest.