Zombies may not be as useless or over-romanticized as we think anymore, especially when they are coming together for a good cause.
A slow-moving herd of the undead made its way down St. George Boulevard Saturday at the fourth annual Zombie Walk hosted by Comics Plus to raise food donations for Dixie Care and Share.
The event contained the whole family package: bounce houses, face painting and music provided by a DJ from The Rush. Free comics and prizes were also up for grabs outside the store, drawing in zombie and comic book lovers from all over the area.
Kat Colson, a former Dixie State University student from Naugatuck, Conn., has aided the growth of the Zombie Walk since its debut. She has recruited many of the rotting corpses who have attended to help the cause over the years.
“Dixie Care and Share is a group of people who don’t have nearly as much as they should,” Colson said. “So this event is kind of a funny contradiction. The zombies are now feeding the humans instead of the other way around.”
People driving down the road were taken aback by the somewhat frightening spectacle. Some honked and some cringed in fear, but the participants of the walk never broke their zombie characters and did not hesitate to growl hungrily at passing cars.
Children ranging from four to 14 years old kept up a limping pace behind their brain-craving parents on the downtown stroll, demonstrating that zombies of all ages have the heart to help the hungry (even if that heart no longer has a pulse).
A vintage polka-dot zombie girl from Richfield named Brittainee Robinson showed up with half of her face bleeding and gory.
She said she has volunteered for the Comics Plus Zombie Walks for two years. As she set up empty cardboard boxes outside the Comics Plus front door, Robinson said she was pleased to see at least 10 boxes of food donations had been already filled throughout the day.
“We’re seeing more and more people participate, and I think it’s because of shows like ‘The Walking Dead,’” Robinson said. “Everyone who comes to these walks has the same sort of interests in comic books and in the zombies. So, the more the better.”
Robinson attended her first walk in 2011 and met David Roland, owner of Comics Plus. Little did she know, her importance to future zombie walks and the man behind the cause would become much more permanent.
“I met my boyfriend, David, after I accidentally added him on Facebook,” Robinson said. “We met up at the walk, and the rest is history. It was fun because the first time he saw me I was all gross and zombied-out. I guess it worked for him!”
Since then, Robinson has been Roland’s right-hand lady. She helped build up the new Comics Plus store location, organized many of the hosted events, and created the artwork on fliers around town.
In his opening speech, Roland shocked the crowd of zombies as he knelt down on one knee and publicly professed his undying zombie love for his girlfriend.
“Brittainee Robinson,” Roland said, “You have been with me for the past two years through thick and thin, hard times and good times. You are now with me through our ‘dead’ times. Would you do me the honor of sharing the rest of your life with me?”
Robinson said “Yes” to Roland’s proposal, which left the zombies swooning and melting in the hot afternoon sun.
As unusual as the event may have seemed to outsiders, the zombies concluded the walk beaming with their best dead smiles and left about 500 pounds of food for Dixie Care and Share.
