By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The sounds of moaning and shuffling started at True Value and carried up Sandusky Avenue. Soon people were stepping out of their front doors or watching from the windows as the undead stumbled its way through the streets of Bucyrus.
No, Bucyrus wasn’t ground zero for the walking dead plague but it did play host to the Bucyrus Zombie Walk on Saturday evening. The Crawford Theatre Company put on the Zombie Walk as a fundraiser for the Salvation Army and the Council on Aging. Aspiring zombies donated cans of food at the registration desk, which will then be given to the Salvation Army. Money raised from the Zombie Walk t-shirts and a raffle of signed pictures of The Walking Dead cast members will be given to the Council on Aging.
“We love Halloween,” said MB Subculture owner Betsy Gerhart, “and we have a store in town and everybody kept coming in and saying, ‘there’s never anything to do in Bucyrus.’”
Well, MB Subculture proprietors Gerhart and Matt Feck decided to do something about that. “We decided to do this because we thought it would be fun,” said Gerhart, “just fun for everybody walking through town as zombies and to make it as a fundraiser too. It’s just a fun event.”
“We wanted to spread the Halloween cheer in Bucyrus,” added Feck. “We wanted to put on something fun, something different, something exciting for people around town to see that something different can happen in Bucyrus.”
Leading up to Saturday’s event, Gerhart said they already had 40 people signed up.
The zombie horde consisting of Nicole Gear, John Cress, Nathan Haycook, Robert Warf and Arianna Slaughter had been anxiously waiting for Saturday since they first heard about the Bucyrus Zombie Walk.
“When most kids were watching Disney movies, John was watching horror movies,” Gear said about her boyfriend. She had made the homemade gore that decorated her horde, putting the finishing touches on Warf before the walk started. Gear made the gore using everyday household items, such as oatmeal, toilet paper, flour and glue.
“This is something I’ve always wanted to do and the closest one to here is Columbus and we can’t get there for it,” said Cress, whose zombie persona had gore and fresh-looking blood covering most of his face and one eye.
“Halloween is 24/7 at our house,” Gear said with a laugh.
Ken Brown stood in front of Wendy’s with Michaela and Riley Peterman. He gleefully pointed out the various zombies that stumbled down the street. The Peterman kids looked on with wide-eyed excitement though they refused to cross the street to get a photo of any of the zombies.
“I think it’s great, it’s awesome,” Brown said after he snapped a quick picture of the living dead.
Brown, Michaela and Riley weren’t the only ones to stop and stare. The cold, blustery October day drew people to the street to point and stare in a sort of shocked fascination. The zombies loved it, playing up the moaning, screaming and shuffling characteristics of the best zombies.
“I think it turned out awesome,” said Feck once the zombies made it to Picking Park. “We had an awesome big horde of zombies; had a good time.”
“With the popularity of The Walking Dead and the zombies are so big right now, kids are getting more and more into this and to see a lot of younger ones, especially the really little ones, like him walking by right now,” Feck said, gesturing to a toddler zombie that ambled by, “I think it’s just great. It shows that this is a family-fun event that anyone can come to. You don’t have to be afraid of zombies.
Numerous prizes were awarded after the walk to some of the funniest and scariest zombies. Feck made sure to tell the zombie horde to be back next year because they plan on having another Zombie Walk.
The Bucyrus Zombie Walk was sponsored by the Crawford Theatre Company, The Tattoo Factory, Authentiques, Zornes Auction Factory, Morning Glory Bakery, Bucyrus Area Chamber of Commerce, Ben’s Street Dogs, Bucyrus Tourism and Visitors Bureau and MB Subculture.
See photos from the Bucyrus Zombie Walk by visiting our Photos page.