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Zombie Crawl brings life to downtown
By Shaiyla B. Hakeem
YOUNGSTOWN
What better way to celebrate Halloween than being surrounded by the living dead?
Dozens of the spooks were spotted crossing the Spring Common Bridge Saturday headed toward the heart of downtown Youngstown.
The ghoulish eighth annual Zombie Crawl was sponsored by the B&O Station Banquet Hall. With a whitewashed face full of open wounds, the zombified B&O Manager/Event Coordinator Amy Komara explained that the event was an adult, over 21 “beer crawl.” All ages were encouraged to come during the day to get a zombie makeover, but the crawl was meant for adult fun.
Youngstown has been viewed negatively in the past, but it’s actually a thriving area that is on the upswing with new establishments and social venues, she said.
“We need people to come back into downtown Youngstown and see that it is a safe, fun, great place where there’s a lot to do,” said Komara, adding, “It’s a blast.”
Four local visual-effects makeup artists volunteered their time to transform the living into animated corpses ready to wander the streets of downtown. The artists used latex to emulate zombie bites and gruesome flesh wounds while applying shading techniques and fake blood to achieve the appearance of otherworldly beings. Wannabe zombies waited in line for their turn to undergo the zombification process that took about 15 minutes to complete.
“People are obsessed with the zombies, and we love Halloween here at the B&O,” said Komara, “It’s just a fun thing to do.”
Registration began at noon, but the beer crawl was jumpstarted by the performance of the late Michael Jackson’s epic “Thriller” zombie dance. The dance was in partnership with Thrill the World, an international dance event that involves worldwide simultaneous participation in the “Thriller” dance. Yellow caution tape in the back parking lot of the B&O Station enclosed zombie dancers as they united to showcase the creepy video choreography.
One zombie, Justin Turner of Girard, practiced all month for his participation in Thrill the World. His costume was complete with a pin-striped shredded suit and blood-soaked bow tie. Turner was intrigued by last year’s dance performance and vowed to be a part of it this year.
“I was just a kid when ‘Thriller’ came out and everyone was doing the dance the next day at school,” he said, “I had forgotten how much fun it was to do.”
Last year, monies raised from the Zombie Crawl went to support the Rich Center For Autism, but this year the proceeds will fund a Thanksgiving dinner for the less fortunate, to be held in downtown Youngstown. The venue and date is to be determined. The crawl will continue to be held each year and is planned to grow in numbers as time passes.
“It is really a crawl where we want everyone to come to Youngstown and support the community and see that it’s a cool place to be,” explained Komara, “It’s always fun to dress as a zombie and be able to support a good cause.”