The Jackson Heights Children's Halloween Parade turns 35 this year, and for the first time in years it steps off in daylight. Because October 31 falls on a Saturday, the Jackson Heights Beautification Group has moved the start to noon, instead of the 5 pm start of past years, and has named the five residents who will lead it down 37th Avenue.

The route and the start time

The parade forms at 89th Street and 37th Avenue and marches west along 37th Avenue to 76th Street. It is free, open to every age, and costumes are encouraged. The group says it is in the final stages of planning, and it describes the parade as the largest children's parade in the city.

The format is what families on the avenue already know: marching bands, goodie bags for the children along the route and, in recent years, a group performance of the Thriller dance. The night before, volunteers pack 3,000 trick-or-treat bags. Local merchants cover the full cost of the parade.

Who is leading it this year

The Beautification Group picks its parade marshals from residents who have given something significant to the neighborhood. This year's five are:

  • Donald Preston and Katha Cato, the founders of the Queens World Film Festival, which they have run for more than 15 years.
  • Detective Bayron Gonzalez of the 115th Precinct's Community Affairs unit.
  • Shanel Thomas-Henry, the area's newly elected City Council member.
  • Edwin Westley O'Keefe, the parade's longtime co-director, who steps down from that role after this year's parade.

Thirty-five years on 37th Avenue

The Jackson Heights Beautification Group was founded in 1988 and began its work in Travers Park; Leslie Ellman is its president. The Halloween parade is one of its yearly programs, run by volunteers and paid for by the businesses along the route.

The 82nd Street Partnership, the neighborhood's business improvement district, also lists the parade on its events calendar, with the afternoon blocked out from noon to 5 pm.

How to go

Arrive before noon on Saturday, October 31, at 89th Street and 37th Avenue to see it form, or pick any corner along 37th Avenue between 89th and 76th Streets to watch it pass. The 7 train stops at 82nd Street-Jackson Heights and 90th Street-Elmhurst Avenue, both a few blocks south of the route, and the E, F, M, R and 7 meet at Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue near the parade's western end.

Volunteers and questions go to the Beautification Group at info@jhbg.org.

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