By Steven Stilt
Organizers of the 97th annual Centralia Halloween Parade honored this year’s parade theme contest winner with a surprise pizza party on Monday. Cora Mitchell, a student in Marcia Stinde’s kindergarten class at Schiller Elementary School, submitted this year’s winning entry, “Halloween Around the World.”
Parade President Jackie “Butch” Mathus says Mitchell’s submission should lend itself to some creative floats.
“We’re very proud of the class for their ingenuity, what they have done for this year’s Halloween Parade. I think that theme will go great for the float builders and it will open up the imagination.”
Mitchell’s mother, Erin Mitchell Borries, says she is proud of her daughter and notes that Cora enjoys learning about different cultures and Halloween traditions from around the world.
According to Mathus, 176 parade theme contest entries were submitted by students from eight Centralia area schools. He says organizers receive many good entries each year, and it can be difficult to pick a winner.
“We want to keep a long-standing tradition alive, let the children make the choice and submit (entries), and we’ll do the final decision. But, like I said, you can ask the rest of the committee members, it’s not an easy choice at times. There are some times where we have some major discussions about it, but overall you’ve got to have one theme, and this is it.”
In addition to Monday’s pizza party for her and her classmates, Mitchell will be honored at the Centralia Elks Lodge prior to the Halloween parade on October 26 and will get to ride in the parade. Buttons will also be created for the parade that include her winning theme.
