Armada-Geddon

The Armada Area Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce this year's Armada-Geddon, Armada's Halloween Spectacular on Saturday, October 5, 2014.  Children's author Johnathan Rand will be the grand marshal of the Halloween Parade.

The fun starts with a 5K Zombie Run/Walk/Shamble  at 10 a.m.  It starts at the Armada Free Public Library at 10 a.m.  We'll head down Church Street, onto the Macomb-Orchard Trail.  From there, we're running to Omo Road, back up to Ridge Road, then to Croll, then to Torrey, so that it makes a big square with a corner cut out.  That way, we're not crossing any major streets and we're not cutting into traffic in front of the gas station.  We're giving out medals to our first place winners for each age group, and there's a trophy for best costume.

The Street Fair starts at 11 a.m. with vendors along Main Street, entertainment in the 5/3 Bank parking lot, and kids' games on Church Street.  

Our entertainment will be Nick Proctor, Kayla Mantey, Sarah Handley, The Barn Swallows, and Bad Dog as our musical guests int e 5/3 Bank parking lot.  
Squirreled Away Books is sponsoring Mike Roberts and his Animal Encounters show with their reptile friends and Johnathan Rand will be signing his books from 4-6 p.m.  
In addition, there will be a Mr. and Miss Zombie Armada pageant, and a Little Miss and Little Mister Zombie Armada Pageant.   The winners get a sash, crown and "boo-kay" and get to ride on a float in the parade. Armada Groom and Board is sponsoring the Fun Dog Competition.  There will be prizes for ugliest dog, cutest dog, best trick, dumbest trick, fattest dog, smallest dog, tallest dog, Owner/Dog Look-Alike, best costume and best zombie dog.

Laura Byrd is bringing back the Zombification Booth.  This woman does incredible zombie makeup.  So, if your'e at the event and you decide that you want to get that corpsey look, she'll treat you right.

John Andrews has been in charge of the kids' games.  He tells us that there will be a zombie duck game, a children's costume contest, spooky stories, a Monster pinata, a ping pong drop, and an Angry-Birds Style Toss Game.  There is also going to be a Haunted House over at Paterek Mold and Engineering.

Department of Homeland Security's Susan Sanderson contacted me to find out if we'd be interested in having a zombie emergency preparedness seminar.  OF COURSE WE WOULD!   She'll be in the Armada Corners building from 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Here's what she has to say about it:  

Are YOU ready for the Zombie Apocalypse? If you're prepared for zombies then you're prepared for anything!  Join us for this 90 minute informative, interactive, fun workshop that includes steps to take in preparing for and responding to an emergency or disaster, in particular a zombie outbreak/pandemic.  Learn about the history of zombies, how to recognize the symptoms of zombie infection, alert and notification of zombie and other threats/hazards, what can be done to evade the undead, how to avoid detection/infection and surviving a zombie confrontation.  ZIP attendees learn what to include in their Zombie Attack Plan (ZAP), Zombie Emergency Preparedness (ZEP) Kit, and how to get involved in their local Zombie Emergency Response Team (ZERT)!  Handouts and certificates of completion are provided to all attendees!

Susan Sanderson, ZIP Instructor, is a certified Professional Emergency Manager (PEM) with the State of Michigan and a Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  She has been teaching emergency preparedness and response for over ten years to citizens, schools, churches, non-profits, businesses and organizations.  A well-known presenter and an advocate of community preparedness education she was featured in a local NBC news report teaching this citizen preparedness class after recent severe weather impacted the Southeast Michigan region.  For the last two years Ms. Sanderson has worked as an Adjunct Instructor with Oakland Community College conducting preparedness classes for citizens across Macomb County as part of the Community College Citizen Preparedness Program (3CP2).  She has worked for the City of Detroit in Homeland Security and Emergency Management, training volunteers in emergency preparedness and working at and responding to the many major sporting and annual events.  Ms. Sanderson is a volunteer with the Michigan Volunteer Defense Force (MI-VDF), 2nd Battalion, the Macomb County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC).