Costumed residents take to the streets for annual event on Broad Street Oct. 30
Stephen Finn
The Sun
The Tuesday before Halloween is a big night for Palmyra. The annual Halloween Parade is the product of months of planning and draws families from all over the county. Broad Street was blocked off for the event between Howard Street in Riverton and Park Avenue where the parade came to a landing at Legion Field.
Parade participants met at a staging area at Riverton School beforehand to register and congregate with costumed friends and neighbors.
One of the most impressive participants was young Kristopher O’Neill, who drew a crowd all wanting a look at his wheelchair, which had been transformed into a replica of his father Keith’s motorcycle. The Muscular Dystrophy Association connected the family with builders Michael McManus, Ben Fong and Mike LaPoint, who are connected with the organization Magic Wheelchairs.
Magic Wheelchairs is a nonprofit that builds costumes for kids in wheelchairs at no cost to the family. Keith was blown away by the replica and couldn’t be more thankful for the work that was put into his son’s costume.
“We didn’t know anything until we saw it just today, it was a complete surprise,” said Keith, who rode his bike alongside his son in the parade.
Resident Debbie O’Connell volunteered at the registration table for the staging area. She is a teacher’s assistant at Palmyra High School and has worked the parade for the last seven years. Overseeing the registration table, she saw participants come to Palmyra from all over the county.
O’Connell made costumes for her granddaughter Maeve and her friends. The four girls share similar names and have been friends since they were young. Megan Forrest, McKenzie Mangano, Maura Russell and Maeve O’Connell decided to celebrate their friendship with a group costume.
“They’re together all the time, they’re best friends and they play on a soccer team together,” said O’Connell. “Their names all begin with ‘M’ so they came up with the four musketeers.”
The impressive costumes were meticulously put together by O’Connell. The girls’ colored capes were made of felt O’Connell sewed together paired with skirts made from an old sheet and the classic the feathered caps to complete the look.
Leading the night’s parade was Palmyra High School’s marching band. The costumed band rehearsed as it waited to start the march. A number of the songs it was performing are standards at football games, so the band was well prepared for its portion of the parade.
“Tonight for the Halloween Parade we like to do fun numbers, so we’re doing a cover of popular stand tunes, ‘Hey Song,’ ‘Louie Louie,’ ‘Monster Mash,’ of course, and we’ll probably throw in ‘Thriller’ as well,” said band director Jeffrey Miller.
Families with young children got creative converting strollers and wagons into Halloween costume creations. First-time participants Erica and Brian Orapello turned their daughter Sophia’s wagon into a pirate ship to match her costume. Their daughter Amelia kept with the theme and dressed up as a mermaid. Her push car was transformed to look like a rock protruding from the waves.
“(Sophia) really likes pirates so she was super excited to have her own pirate ship,” said Erica.
According to her parents, Sophia has refined tastes when it comes to her love of pirates.
“Not like cute pirates,” said Erica. “She likes Blackbeard, she screams ‘aye, aye captain!’”
To watch live video taken during the parade check out the Borough of Palmyra’s Facebook page at facebook.com/boroughofpalmyra.
