By Dan Miner/minerd@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette
October 25, 2007 01:41 am
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• WHAT: Annual Halloween Party and Costume Contest
• WHEN: 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday (registration begins at 12:45 p.m.)
• WHERE: Begins and ends at the Red Brick School gym, 145 N. Fourth St.
Youngstown’s reputation as a village a family can love will be on display Saturday at the annual Halloween Party and Costume Contest.
“It’s a great family event,” said Tina Oddy, vice chairperson of the village Recreation Commission and a teacher at Lewiston-Porter Middle School. “The last couple of years, we’ve had between 200 and 300 people.”
Children and teenagers from the village and Porter sport Halloween costumes as they walk in the parade, which begins and ends at the Red Brick School on North Fourth Street, Village Mayor Neil Riordan said. Participants are given candy and applause during the Main Street portion of the parade.
“It’s a chance for kids to show the community all the creative costumes,” he said. “They’re judged in several different categories, and prizes and certificates are given to winners. A first-, second- and third-place winner will be chosen in each category.”
Registration for the parade begins at 12:45 p.m., and it commences at 1 p.m. Once it’s over, there will be a party at the school with a pumpkin design contest and other events.
“It provides a safe place for kids to share their costumes with each other and to show them off,” Oddy said. “They go to the businesses, who stand outside and have candy for the kids. The businesses that even aren’t normally open during that time period will come out and give the kids candy and stuff.”
The parade is the kind of event that typifies a village that recently was called the best small village for quality of life in Western New York by Buffalo Business First, Riordan said.
“It’s just another event that really exemplifies that local type of feeling,” he said.
The event is part of a series of efforts coordinated by the Recreation Commission, Oddy said. The commission stresses involving community groups in the events, she said.
“They’ve been doing the parade since I was a kid,” she said, adding that her 10-, 14- and 15-year-old children will participate this year. “We try to change it up a little bit every year but try to keep a lot of the popular things the same.”
Contact reporter Dan Miner at 282-2311, ext. 2263.
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