Alvin, the Chipmunk, Celebrates Yorktown Halloween Parade and Carnival

Hundreds of children and parents walked down Underhill Avenue showing off their costumes in the Saturday, Oct. 30, annual Yorktown Halloween Children's Parade, sponsored by the Yorktown Lion's Club, in conjunction with the Parks and Recreation Department.

A boy dressed as Spiderman sat in one of the Yorktown volunteer fire trucks, which was on hand as part of the festivities at the beginning and end of the parade. Other children waited in line with their parents to have their pictures taken inside the trucks.  

Parade-goers marched down to the Yorktown Community and Cultural Center, where they were greeted with three inflatable air castles for children, face-painting stations, balloon-animal making volunteers, and other activities.

Paige Lampert, a ninth-grade student at Yorktown High School who volunteered for the event, was happy to contribute to the children's Halloween fun.

This is the first year that I've painted faces for the kid's parade," Lampert said.

At the Yorktown Stage Theater, a packed auditorium of families waited for the costume contest to begin. Lions Club member and the parade organizer for the more than 30 years, Rich Scarchilli, was the official emcee for the contest.

"The whole parade used to take place in the gymnasium," Scarchilli said. "They had pontoons that the kids would walk in circles around, showing off their costumes."

Up on stage, Scarchilli introduced the 2010 "best costume" judges who were Yorktown Supervisor Susan Siegel, Yorktown Fire Chief Martin McGannon, and Yorktown resident and volunteer EMT Jeff Siegel.

The contestants gathered on stage for the individual age-group awards, beginning with toddlers as young as one. For each age category the judges selected a number of winners and handed out small, pumpkin-themed trophies to the children. The rest of the children received ribbons.

Yorktown resident, Tracy Falcone, who attended the parade with her two sons and nephew, said the parade experience goes back to her own childhood days.

Falcone's mother, Nancy Milanese, had started taking her and her siblings to the parade when they were just toddlers, and would make all of their costumes. Many of then often earned prizes, she said.

Continuing that family tradition of winning, the 2010 Halloween Parade for Best Homemade Costume went to Milanese's grandson, six-year old Andrew Franz. Franz was dressed as the character Alvin, from the movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks." His brother, Thomas Franz, wore a homemade sorcerer's costume, and his cousin, Jon Falcone Jr., dressed as a shark warrior for the day.

"The costumes the kids have on today were also made by my mom," Kimberly Franz said.

Over the years, the Lions Club has sought to expand the overall experience of the event by bringing the parade to the streets and by incorporating fun games and Halloween activities for the children.

"We wanted to keep the contest because the kids love to go up on stage," Scarchilli said. "But we try to continue to add new stuff, too, like the Pumpkin Patch."

The Pumpkin Patch, which made its debut last year at the Gazebo, was a hit again this year as dozens of children flocked to the track field to claim the pumpkins scattered all over the grass, which then they painted inside the Gazebo.

"It's really these kind of cooperative events--such as the Halloween Parade you've seen today--that make Yorktown such a great, family friendly town," Siegel said.