Devilishly disguised dogs prowled about Hessel Park last Saturday in celebration of Champaign’s sixth annual Halloween Puppy Parade, flaunting their homemade costumes to attending families as the furry fiends competed in the event’s costume contest.
The free event, launched in 2020 by the Lisa Rector Team at Keller Williams Realty, initially emerged as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s restrictive gathering protocols due to its outdoor setting. It attracted so many attendees over the years that the parade was relocated from its humble beginnings as a neighborhood get-together in Prairie Meadows to its current residence at the larger Hessel Park.
“I’m always pleasantly surprised with how many people show up,” said Lisa Rector, owner of the Lisa Rector Team at Keller Williams Realty, who counted 33 competing dogs this year. “They just keep getting more creative and just setting the bar higher and higher, so it’s just so fun to watch all of the repeat families and to see new faces.”
The Lisa Rector Team receives support from several local businesses to bolster the event every year. Two One Seven Mortgage provided doughnuts for the event, alongside the plethora of companies that came together to contribute prizes for the contest winners.
Dogs of all shapes, sizes and numbers of limbs won. Both an amputee dog cleverly dressed as a peg-legged pirate and a pup donning a frighteningly convincing spider costume brought home the gold for the “coolest” and “scariest” costumes.
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The winners were decided by hidden volunteer judges specially selected for their involvement in the Champaign-Urbana community. This year’s panel featured Experience Champaign-Urbana CEO Jayne DeLuce, Champaign Park District marketing director Chelsea Norton and child judge Maylee Borden.
“I’ve never done (judging) before; it was mind-blowing,” Borden said. “To pick the best dog costume from which ones that showed it off, or had the hardest work … It was very cute.”
The ultimate winner of Best Costume went to Brooklyn Manning, a graduate student studying veterinary medicine, and her 12-year-old Lhasa Apso, Dewey. The pair dressed up as a human lifeguard and dog surfer, with Dewey’s stroller incorporated into the costume, decorated with sea waves and a dog-sized surfboard.
Dog costume contest veteran Manning sees the Puppy Parade as a local opportunity to popularize senior dog adoptees like Dewey, whom she rescued from a hoarding case in May.
“Being able to carry on and show people that the senior dogs I have are really great and well mannered, and they let me dress them up … that’s really the message I try to get across when I come out (at costume contests),” Manning said. “Being able to do that year after year just means a lot, and I hope that other people see that and want to adopt seniors too.”
