New York City Halloween Parade

By Catherine Snider, PRC-Saltillo Consultant in NYC and surrounding areas

The New York City Halloween parade is a 46-year long tradition where puppeteers and artists are given license to run free with their creativity and parade down 6^th Avenue in Greenwich Village.

PRC is lucky to have Samantha Strong as part of our consultant network, and she does amazing work supporting PRC device users and therapists in Colorado. We’re doubly lucky that she is personally connected to Jeanne Fleming, who is the director of the parade and has been a gracious host to the PRC team, device users, and local therapists.

This year we were joined by Omar and his family, as well as Marilyn, his SLP. Omar was dressed as “superman” and was seated by the guard rail so he was able to watch has all of the floats and parading people in costumes went by.

There are many artisans who create immaculate puppets and performances as part of the parade, but ordinary people can also join the parade as long as they are in a costume. This creates a fantastic mix of elaborate costumes and excited regular people who all get to experience the parade together.

Each year, the parade team chooses a theme for the event, and this year the theme was “wild.” The theme inspired many woodland style creatures and animals and different variations of costumes related to the children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are,” by Maurice Sendak. I took the theme very literally and dressed up as Cheryl Strayed, who titled her autobiography “Wild.” She hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, so I wore hiking clothes and a large hiking backpack.

As with most large events in New York, the parade would not be possible without the support from the New York Police Department. The NYPD assists in crowd control and makes sure that everyone is safe. Before the parade starts, the police officers clear the route on foot and mounted on horses. While the police were walking by they noticed Omar and asked if they could take a picture with him. On the banner, you will find photo of Omar and his family posing with the NYC counterterrorism unit, one of many parts of the NYPD who were helping at the parade.

I have included a few photos that I took with my phone, including one of Omar and me, and a few of the spectacular costumes that we saw go by. We were joined by a professional photographer who documented the evening with incredible photos of the parade members before they took to the streets as well as photos of our group as we were watching the parade. So be on the lookout for more fantastic photos to come!

If you are a device user or SLP and live in the New York City area and are interested in attending the parade with PRC next year, please contact me at Catherine.Snider@prentrom.com. We can’t wait to see what next year’s parade has in store! If you are interested in learning more about the Halloween Parade in general, please visit their website.