Halloween comes early along the Monster Mile
There were little monsters everywhere in Alameda Park Saturday, as well as Ghost Busters, pirates, princesses and ninjas.
They and their parents took part on a sunny late morning in the Monster Mile Family Walk in Alameda Park. The Butler County Parks and Recreation Department staged the event along the nearly mile-long loop from the Masonic shelter to the Oddfellows gazebo.
As the costumed participants moved from candy stations to a bounce house to a petting zoo, the only things upsetting were the inflatable Halloween decorations set up along the way — they were blown over by the occasional wind gusts.
Frank Masi, of the Butler County Parks and Recreation Department, said 200 children up to the age of 10 signed up for the annual event, running from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Masi said the walk featured stations handing out candy, juice boxes, snacks and sandwiches, along with a face-painting station, a bounce house, a petting zoo and a pumpkin patch.
"Kids dress up and walk the loop and get an early start on Halloween,“ he said.
Department employees were aided by 15 volunteers from the junior ROTC program at Butler High School.
Stephanie Nagel, of Evans City, said she was having a hard time getting her two sons, Jackson, 4, and John, 5, out of the bounce house.
“This is our first time doing the Monster Mile. We’ve done Easter events at the park,” she said. “We could probably stay here all day.”
Fellow mom Kelly Sarver, of Prospect, whose son, Cody, 5, shares a kindergarten class with Jackson and John at Connoquenessing Elementary School, said this was also her first visit to Monster Mile. Sarver said she and Nagel had both heard about the event on Facebook.
JROTC member and volunteer Jordan Vegerano was manning a treat station handing out blue, pink and white cotton candy.
“The community reached out to our program and we volunteered,” he said, adding he was an old hand at Halloween events, having previously volunteered at the park’s Haunted Trial event.
Vegerano said, “The kids for the most part have been pretty polite. Some are too shy to speak, but that’s pretty typical for the age group.”
Farther down the path, Nina Ansler, of Butler, was reconsidering the wisdom of the costume she bought as she escorted her two-year-old daughter Ash. The elder Ansler was in a life-size dinosaur outfit.
“This is the first time I’ve worn it. I’ve had it for a whole hour. I bought it right before we came here,” she said.
Asked if it was easy to move in it, she said, “Absolutely not. This is the hardest costume I’ve had in my entire life.”
Riley Smith, 10, of Butler, who was dressed as Winnie Sanderson from the movie “Hocus Pocus,” said this was the last time she could attend the event because she will have aged out by next year. She said her favorite stop on the route was “maybe the petting zoo.”
Michael Bartley, 5, of Slippery Rock, dressed as a wolf and carrying a pumpkin he’d picked at the pumpkin patch station, said it was the best day ever.
“I liked everything, the pumpkins, the cotton candy,” he said. “We’re going to paint my pumpkin, not cut it.”
Winslow Glaze, 6, and her sister, Perri, 8, of Butler, disagreed on the best part of the Monster Mile. Winslow, dressed as Sonic the Hedgehog, said it was the candy, while Perri, portraying a hula dancer, said it was the bounce house.
Their father, Jerry Glaze, said, “Perri’s big into the American Girl books and stuff. Her hula dancer is an American girl who grew up during World War II and made up a costume out of whatever she had.”
“It’s been really great. Usually they meet with some of their friends here. This year’s weather’s been great. Last year it rained,” he said.
