Sunday, October 28, 2012
YOUNGSTOWN
At least three Saturday events allowed adults to celebrate Halloween enthusiastically in the Mahoning Valley.
Invitees could attend an elaborate all-night house party in Boardman, featuring both catered and homemade food. A colorful panoply of Halloween figures and decorations completely overtook the house and its front and rear yards.
Anyone could bar-hop in the fourth annual Zombie Crawl in downtown Youngstown after making a donation to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.
Some 120 people paid $65 per person to attend the first-ever Masquerade at the Mill fundraiser in Mill Creek Park’s restored, 1845-vintage Lanterman’s Mill in Youngstown.
“You can be somebody else. You can be your alter ego or the person you just wanted to be for just one night,” said Greg Smith, host of the Boardman house party.
Smith and his wife, Nancy, have been conducting the lavish annual party at their residence since 2006. The event has grown from about 50 attendees the first year to Saturday night’s level of about 200.
The party, which began at 6 p.m. and was scheduled to end at dawn, now requires a 30- by 60-foot tent adjacent to the garage to accommodate the crowd.
Family members and friends collectively spend about 2,000 hours over 50 days, beginning immediately after Labor Day, to prepare for the annual party, Greg Smith said.
“Now we get to celebrate the best holiday there is — Halloween,” said Don Hepler of Boardman, who attended the house party for his fifth consecutive year after working seven weeks to prepare for it.
Hepler became Russell Edgington, the oldest of the vampires, whose front-yard tombstone says he was born in 850 B.C. and died in 800 B.C.
“We take so much time and effort; people just don’t want it to end,” Greg Smith said, explaining why the party continues all night.
Kim Varley of Boardman, a niece of Greg Smith, who has attended all seven of the annual parties, said she is impressed with all aspects of the party, including “the decorations, the people, the fun, the laughter.” She became a young vampire for the night.
“It’s just a really fun time and it’s different every year,” said Sue Filipovich of Boardman, a third-time attendee, who applied finishing touches to the decorations before becoming an old vampire born in 1799.
“This is THE party of this area. I wouldn’t go anywhere else,” for a Halloween party, said Joe Glenn of Youngstown, the make-up artist for this and many other Halloween attractions, including the Canfield Scaregrounds.
“It’s very detailed and extravagant. It’s Hollywood level,” Greg Smith said.
“It’s a lot of money,” he said, declining to reveal exactly how much the party costs each year.
Some decorations are home-made; some are purchased at discounted post-Halloween sale prices; and some items are reused from year-to-year, Smith said.
“I’m either a do-it-right or don’t-do-it-at-all person,” said Nancy Smith, explaining the extravagance of the celebration.
Greg Smith called the event “just a fun night, where you can just relax, escape life and just have fun with the living dead.”
This year’s party had a Tru Blood theme, based on “The Southern Vampire Mysteries,” by novelist Charlaine Harris and on the TV series bearing the True Blood name.
Life-sized skeleton vampire figures were seated at the dining table.
Ten skeletons climbed the home’s exterior toward an illuminated red rooftop sign that said: “Serving Tru Blood.”
The front yard was filled with tombstones, coffins, and animated zombies, vampires, bats and werewolves, some of which would jump at and talk to people walking by them.
Participants in the Lanterman’s Mill festivities were invited to dress “mysteriously elegant” for a night of music, adult beverages, catered food and entertainment on all three floors of the mill.
That event was a fund-raiser for the Lanterman’s Mill Preservation Fund and Hands-On Volunteer Network.
Meanwhile, in downtown Youngstown, 14 bars, restaurants and clubs participated in the Zombie Crawl, which began with makeup artists transforming attendees into zombies at the B&O Station.
Those arriving during the afternoon could pick up maps for a self-guided walking tour of nearby Oak Hill Cemetery if they didn’t mind walking in the rain.
Among those who came to see the cemetery, where many prominent Youngstown historical figures are buried, were Lonny Parry of Boardman, and his wife, Rebecca, who attended the event for the first time.
“I was born and raised here, and any attraction that draws people to the downtown area, I really enjoy seeing that,” Lonny Parry said.
Early in the evening, the zombies paraded into Central Square, where dancers performed the Thrill of the World dance based on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.
Registrants received wrist bands entitling them to food and drink specials at participating establishments and a ride on the Zombie Trolley, which looped to all participating locations all evening.
Newcomers among downtown establishments in the event this year included V2, Roberto’s, O’Donold’s and Dooney’s.