Distant barks from excited dogs filled the crisp fall air as participants and spectators gathered Saturday morning for the fifth annual Halloween Puppy Parade.
The furry friends of Champaign-Urbana gathered under the golden-leaved trees of Hessel Park, wearing their very best costumes. Sporting spooky and cute outfits, all 38 puppies competed to get their paws on the gift baskets curated by local businesses.
The event made by the Lisa Rector Team and Keller Williams Realty in 2020 started to reconnect the community when the world was distant, explained Rector, real estate broker at Keller Williams Realty and creator of the parade. Although the world is free from the pandemic, Rector and her team continue the parade.
“This is a family affair; we have all of our kids out here and spouses,” Rector said. “We just all come together and do this for the community.”
Beginning as a walk around the block in the Prairie Meadows neighborhood and then a mini gathering in Colbert Park, the Puppy Parade increases in size every year, Rector said. The parade has outgrown those locations, filling Hessel with “the best turnout yet,” Rector said before announcing the winners.
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The prize table was stacked with gift baskets loaded with treats and toys from local businesses like the Bank of Springfield, Big Pawz Dog Spa and Legacy Legal.
“We have about 15 prizes,” Rector said. “We have a lot of community members that partner with us and give us fun gifts and prizes.”
Judges for this event are hand-selected by Rector, awarding the honor to those involved with the community. This year, the team consisted of Jenette Jurczyk from The She Said Project, Zach Tish with the Champaign Fire Department and Maddie McCoy, this year’s kid judge.
McCoy participated in last year’s parade with her dog, Remy, who was dressed as a skeleton. This year, she was “looking for creativity, detail and fun colors,” she said, hoping to see homemade costumes as “they are more creative.”
Tish went for a more open-minded way of judging and said that “whatever jumps out at me first” would get his vote.
Children flocked from the adjacent playground to view the spectacle. The tails never stopped wagging as the creative costumes flaunted around Hessel Park. Some standout costumes included a hound dog hotdog, a golden retriever pickleball player and a psychedelic poodle colored in rainbow washable paint pens and a mullet haircut.
This year, the parade implemented four categories: scariest, coolest, funniest and all-around best. Each winner received a skeleton trophy and got to pick which gift basket they wanted. The remaining gifts were raffled off to the other pups.
The winner of the funniest category was Cinnamon, a beagle dressed as Beetlejuice, dubbed “Beaglejuice,” with her owners being the iconic sandworm.
Cinnamon is a retired testing dog from the dietary research section of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Her parents, Angelo Miskalis and Ashley Blystone, rescued her after seeing an adoption ad on the laboratory bulletin board while working at the Beckman Institute in November 2022.
“She doesn’t bark; she is super quiet and will wear whatever you want,” Miskalis said.
Demure and humble, Cinnamon won second place in 2023 with her ‘beagle and cream cheese’ costume, inspired by how she absolutely loves milk, Blystone said.
Rector said she looks forward to “seeing everyone’s cute little pups all dressed up” and encouraged everyone to bring back their “furry babies” for the sixth annual Halloween Puppy Parade next year.
