This year’s Throggs Neck Halloween Parade should be another wholesome, fun-filled event for the whole family.
Assemblyman Michael Benedetto is taking the lead in coordinating the 32nd Annual Throggs Neck Halloween Parade and Street Fair, which will takes place on Halloween, Saturday, October 31 beginning at noon and running until 4 p.m.
The parade line up will start at 11:30 a.m. at Harding Avenue and Throgs Neck Boulevard.
After a quick march for children in costume and their families at noon, the celebration returns for a traditional street festival on Throgs Neck Boulevard between Harding and Schurz avenues.
During the street festival, there will be a costume contest for the children in different age groups, with first, second and third prizes given for the best costumes, up to age 13.
There should be rides, face painting, games, bear building station, food from local vendors and more.
Benedetto seemed to relish his role in keeping and growing a Halloween tradition that began in the 1980s with then Assemblyman John Dearie and has grown tremendously in recent years.
About 1,000 children participating every year, he said.
“The thing I love the most about it is to see kids having fun,” said the assemblyman, adding that the parade “is a nice place where families can get together and their children can have fun.”
He added that he and his partners in the effort work to keep the event affordable. Congressman Joseph Crowley, Senator Jeff Klein and Councilman James Vacca and their staffs assist Benedetto in running the parade and fair.
“We are trying to keep it an event where everybody can go to, and for a nominal amount, just really enjoy themselves,” said the assemblyman, adding “every year we get our 1000 kids and they have four hours of pure, good fun.”
The assemblyman said that the highlight of every year has to be the costume contest, and that the community children can be very creative.
The parade and festival is something that people from Throggs Neck can brag about to friends and relatives who may live in outside of the Bronx, he added.
Pelham Parkway also has a Halloween event planned.
The 3rd Annual Halloween Parade and Party for Pelham Parkway takes place Saturday, October 24.
For that event, the costumed children will assemble at 1:30 p.m. at the southeast corner of Pelham Parkway and White Plains Road for the parade that starts at 2 p.m. and marches to P.S. 105.
In the schoolyard there will be a party from 2:30 to 5 p.m.
Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj and Councilman James Vacca host this event every year.
