Downtown zombie
invasion a rousing success
By PHILIP NARSH
Staff Writer
PSNsool@psu.edu
It was a gray and cloudy day
in the late afternoon of October
24. Thick fog billowed up from
the Susquehanna River as a
blood-thirsty gang of more than
two hundred zombies shambled
across the Walnut Street Walking
Bridge from City Island toward
an unsuspecting Harrisburg.
The horde growled and moaned
as it made its way through the
busy streets, passing the Capitol
building and Strawberry Square.
However, this flash mob of
walking corpses was not a sign
of the zombie apocalypse; this
was the first annual Harrisburg
Zombie Walk.
The walk was organized by
zombie enthusiasts Melanie
Devorick and Justin Kovaloski,
who had planned the event for
several months. Mostofthe people
who attended the walk found out
about it from the Facebook group
Devorick and Kovaloski created.
“[Video game designers] really
succeeded in making terrifying
video games. I think that helped
get a whole new generation
of people to love and fear the
undead,” Devorick said.
The zombies came from all
walks of life, young and old, and
dressed in all manners of blood
soaked costumes ranging from
zombie brides to construction
workers. One man wheeled his
zombified daughter about town
in a stroller as he chewed on a
severed limb.
The citizens of Harrisburg didn’t
know exactly what to make of
this sudden outbreak. People
waved from cars as they passed,
some screamed in terror. Many
stopped to pose for pictures with
the zombies.
Penn State students Colin Powell
and Brian Lopez were among the
brain-eating crowd. Powell, a
sophomore telecommunications
major, dressed in running shorts
and a blood-smeared Relay for
Life t-shirt.
“It was great,” said Powell, “I
got the most enjoyment from
seeing people’s reactions, taking
pictures and videotaping us.
Seeing it on the news was really
cool, too. I felt like a celebrity.”
“Pm so proud of my generation,”
said Lopez, “I was really surprised
at how many people showed up
for it and the detail they put into
their costumes.”
Powell and Lopez plan to attend
the next year’s zombie walk in
different costumes and with more
blood.
Devorick and Kovaloski have
already begun planning for next
year’s zombie walk and hope to
achieve an even larger turnout in
2010.