It’s going to be a great Halloween in La Conner. Corey Catubo can feel it in her bones.
Catubo, a paraeducator at the La Conner Schools District and president of the Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA) chapter here, is coordinating this year’s downtown Halloween parade and trick or treat fest.
“It will be the same as always as far as the format goes,” Catubo said of the popular Oct. 31 PTSA walking serpentine. “The costumes may be different every year, but this parade is always one of the biggest things we have going on.
“Hopefully, the majority of students, staff, and community will turn out again.”
There is a change in the parade schedule this year, however. La Conner Schools are in session only for a half-day on Halloween, dismissing around noon. The parade starts at 3 p.m.
Participants will gather at the corner of North First and State Streets before commencing their celebratory walk downtown. Children must be accompanied by an adult, though that has never been an issue since parents and grandparents often sport some of the day’s more un-fang-gettable costumes.
This should give the kids more time to get ready.
Corey Catubo
“We’ll walk down to Calico Cupboard with PTSA leading in the front with our sign. Then the kids can trick-or-treat at the local businesses on the way back,” Catubo said.
Weather permitting, a favorite motorized parade entry is expected to again help lead the parade.
The “Meow Mix Mobile,” a bright orange custom-designed and feline-inspired rig — always in a cat-egory of its own — has joined La Conner parades for well more than a decade.
“We plan on being in the parade,” confirmed Gina Johnson, who with her husband, Tony, owns what locals have long considered the purr-fect Halloween vehicle.
“But it has a lot to do with the weather,” she said. “If it’s just sprinkling, we’ll bring it out. But if it’s pouring down rain, we don’t like to take it out.”
Traditionally, costumed parade-goers of all ages who walk the First Street route have shown up rain or shine.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
