Penn Township hosts Halloween parade
PENN TWP — Halloween festivities kicked off one night early in Penn Township, where residents of all ages pulled out their costumes and goody bags for the township’s annual Halloween parade.
"It’s been a yearly tradition for as long as I can remember,“ Kelly Weston, a science teacher at Seneca Valley Senior High School, said Monday, Oct. 30.
The parade started at Penn Christian Academy and made its way down Airport Road to the Penn Township Volunteer Fire Department grounds, with the marchers flanked by a yellow firetruck the entire way. The youngsters were dressed in all sorts of colorful costumes ranging from Pocahontas to Mario to the McDonald’s Hamburglar.
Standing tallest among them — quite literally — was Bill Weston, who came dressed as a T. rex. Weston is the leader of Boy Scout Troop 53 out of Nixon, and dressed as a T. rex to match his son, T.J.
After the parade, the marchers sought refuge from the cold and drizzle in the warmth of the fire station to play games such as hopscotch and miniature bowling.
“We have the traditional ring toss. We have the ‘throw the bean bag in the pumpkin’s face.’ We got a pumpkin golf game,” said Weston. “All the classics.”
Before that, volunteer Mary Core — dressed as a pink butterfly — announced the winners of the parade’s costume contest, as a panel of four independent volunteer judges named the 10 best costumes in the parade.
Among the winners were Silas Wabiszewski, dressed a knight, and Ethan Crede, dressed as a SWAT team member.
“They’re not judged on ‘prettiest’ or ‘cutest’,” Core said. “We just thought, we’ll pick the ones that we like.’”
One of the more creative costume choices was made by the Conley family of four, who all came dressed according to a theme. It started when 3-year-old Tiger Lily chose to dress up as a unicorn, and the rest of the family wanted to coordinate with her.
Thus, mother Sarah dressed as a rainbow, father Kyle dressed as a rain cloud, and 4-month-old brother Leon was dressed as the sun.
“She wanted to be a unicorn, and we wanted to match her,” Sarah said.
Fittingly, given the conditions outside the firehouse, Kyle’s rain cloud costume was one of the 10 winners. Kyle said he did not know it would rain on the day of the parade when he chose to wear the costume.
"It’s Western Pennsylvania,“ Kyle said. ”It could rain any day.“
