First ‘Zombie Walk’ raises funds for cancer research
George “The Zombie” Richardson of Butler talks with Brenda DesMoines of Marianna about zombie movies at the Zombie Walk event Saturday. Vendors sold crafts and goods while zombies milled around the grounds all while raising funds for Relay for Life.
Desirea Neely of Washington finishes up her zombie makeup at the start of the Zombie Walk event. Neely was one of several who donated her time and skill to apply makeup to transform people into zombies at the event Saturday.
Cindy Loughman, captain of the Subs Unlimited Relay for Life team, tops off a dish with cheese sauce for Ian Zaccone of Scenery Hill. The Subs Unlimited team sponsored the Zombie Walk event by the Consol Energy Park in North Franklin Township to raise money for Relay for Life.
2:25 p.m. Saturday. The first infected have been discovered as “patient zero” registers at the American Cancer Society event hosted by the Subs Unlimited Relay for Life team at Consol Energy Park.
2:45 p.m. The hunters have registered and begin to track down the undead menace.
The game at hand uses the zombie phenomenon as a switch-up to the usual walk events volunteers and cancer patients have participated in for years. So this time, fundraising for the deadly serious disease is getting a boost by having fun with a horror classic: the walking dead.
“I’m a 9-year survivor, 13-year volunteer,” said Mary Iams, one of the organizers from Subs Unlimited on East Maiden Street, who explained they’re the sole team to organize the inaugural zombie walk in Washington County.
Iams stayed away from the gory tattoos makeup artists had on-hand, instead opting for a heart on her neck. But her relay partner, Barb Benedetti, had head-to-toe makeup. The fact she was working a food booth didn’t deter the getup. She dragged her “broken” ankle to re-enact “Thriller” as Michael Jackson blared across the Wild Things parking lot. The rest of the music was much more macabre. Rob Zombie – naturally – blasted for even those buried to hear.
The novelty of the ever-popular zombie craze brought out several first-timers who had never been to an American Cancer Society event.
“I think it’s fun to get the makeup. The fun of the gore, really, that’s what zombies are about,” said Ian Zaccone, of Scenery Hill.
“It took us two hours to put on this makeup,” said Amber Parola, of Bentleyville.
They could have saved themselves the time of their pre-event application, because the walk featured makeup artists, as well as three dozen crafters and vendors and “professional zombies” and extras from George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” movies. Still, others showed regardless of the outing’s themes out of respect for family and friends who were successfully treated for cancer, or, like Benedetti, for those who did not survive.
“My father died of pancreatic cancer 11 years ago, and my mother was diagnosed 10 years ago with kidney cancer. … I’m here to celebrate my mom’s survival and to help raise funds to find a cure for the disease that killed my dad,” Benedetti said.
“I had breast cancer in 2012 and surgery and radiation in 2013, but this is my first Relay for Life event. I plan to continue coming out and supporting this community,” said Mary Nonic, of Marianna, who was dressed in a Red Riding Hood-like costume. She clarified she’s a “pioneering settler zombie.” She declined to comment how she would’ve survived in a wilderness largely absent of human brains to feast on.
Brenda DesMoines, also of Marianna, said her sister passed away from lung cancer five years ago. She’s continuing a tradition.
“She had a Relay for Life Team, and it really picked her spirits up,” DesMoines said. She was dressed in curls and a blood-spattered nightgown – an apparent victim from an infected bite while she slept. For her, the contradiction of laughing at the morbid is part of the cancer community.
“Brains? Oh no,” she said, “I go for the kidneys. Kidney pies.”