Kids get creative for Spooktacular Funfest

October 21, 2012 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

When she’s not adorned with scar tissue, blood stains and other usual trappings of a zombie bride, Lexie Anderson looks like many typical 11-year-olds.

Of course, if you wear a costume intended to resemble the walking dead, it never hurts to have someone add coffee stains, run it over with a four-wheel vehicle and leave tire impressions, and allow the fabric to wrinkle.

That’s where the Berlin Center girl’s mother, Marci Anderson, comes in.

“I saw [the Halloween costume] in a magazine and thought it was cool, and my mom said it was OK, so we went and bought it,” said Lexie, a Western Reserve Middle School student who lists knitting hats and selling them as one of her favorite hobbies.

Mother and daughter were among those who added color and creativity to Saturday’s Spooktacular Funfest in Mill Creek MetroParks’ James L. Wick Jr. Recreation Area on the West Side.

Sponsoring the 3 Ω-hour event were 21 WFMJ-TV, Akron Children’s Hospital and Caren’s Groom Room of Niles.

Lexie, who wore makeup to simulate a bloody face and neck also participated in one of several costume contests, each of which was broken into age groups.

Marci Anderson also added a few “bloodstains” to the back of her daughter’s costume, which Lexie plans to wear on Halloween when she goes trick-or-treating.

Accompanying Lexie and Marci were Lexie’s sisters, Emma, 7, and Taylor, 8; father, James Anderson; and several other relatives.

Despite a makeshift graveyard, a 1-foot orange spider with black stripes and a few stuffed corpses and walking mummies, the mood at the recreation area was quite festive.

The site was filled with youngsters dressed like princesses, clowns, vampires, M&M’s candies, angels and a box of crayons.

Also on hand were costumes that were small facsimiles of Tigger, and Gene Simmons of the rock group KISS.

Stretching to the limit the notion that you are what you eat was 9-year-old Marianna Franco of Cortland, who wore a large costume that looked like spaghetti and an elongated meatball.

“She’s an aspiring chef,” said Marianna’s mother, Lisa Franco, who took about six hours to design the costume that relied heavily on a hula-hoop and a hot-glue gun.

For her efforts, Marianna received a $10 gift card from Barnes & Noble Booksellers because her costume took first-place honors in the contest for children age 7 to 9.

“It feels really good!” an excited Marianna said after her victorious finish.

Marianna, a Lakeview Elementary fourth-grader, said she plans to dress as Bugs Bunny for Halloween. Nevertheless, she didn’t arrive at her decision lightly.

“I was going to be a nerd for Halloween, then I thought I’d be a [Pittsburgh] Steeler, then a scarecrow,” said Marianna, adding that she enjoys drawing, gymnastics and cooking.

Other festivities and attractions included a mummy-wrap competition, a pet contest, a small petting zoo and a concert in which a group sang children’s songs.

The Spooktacular fest, which had about 10 vendors, took place in the afternoon and replaced an annual evening Halloween gathering in the park partly because of weather considerations, noted Carol Vigorito, a naturalist with the Ford Nature Center and an event coordinator.

“The [event’s] purpose was to provide a safe, gentle family-oriented Halloween afternoon of fun,” Vigorito explained.

Also coordinating Saturday’s event was Angie McGrady, another park naturalist.