BRAAAAINS!: Zombie Walk Stumbling Down Lansdale Main Street Friday

Run for your life and don't lose your brain: The walking dead are taking over Lansdale Friday.
Discover Lansdale is teaming up with Old Bloodworth Manor in Towamencin to host the first-ever Zombie Walk at the November First Friday.
The idea: Participants show up to be zombies or zombie hunters—zombie prosthetics and NERF-brand zombie hunting crossbows optional—and gather at Trinity Lutheran Church at 6:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., walkers will stumble down the Main Street sidewalks to Railroad Plaza. There, Discover Lansdale and Old Bloodworth Manor will hold a costume contest at 8 p.m.
And what's a zombie event without a "Thriller" dance? Teachers will be on-hand at Railroad Plaza to show how to do the dance.
The event is free, with zombie participants asked to bring a donation for Manna on Main Street.
"Anyone can take part," said Towamencin resident and Old Bloodworth Manor owner Lady Despaira, also known by her Native American name Eagle Skyfire."We will have a zombie judging contest in different categories at 8 p.m. sharp. We will gather at 6:30 p.m. and then shamble down looking for brains at 7 p.m."
"Any townsfolk who are not zombies better run," she said. "We're coming for them."
People can come as zombies or zombie hunters, she said.
"We want people to come together as a town and have fun," Despaira said. "We want to overrun the town with zombies and monsters and have a blast." 
The more zombie-fied, the better.
"The more you look like you will walk on a movie set, the better," she said.
Despaira will be at the October First Friday in Lansdale to raise interest on the event.
"Anyone that wants to join the legions of the undead, I welcome them," she said.
Old Bloodworth Manor is a residence-turned-professional haunt at 1124 Walnut Lane that has been going strong for 10 years. It is open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Halloween.
"It's based on a Gothic-style haunt: thrills and chills and we play with your mind," Lady Despaira said. 
In addition to the haunted house this year, Despaira approached the nonprofit Discover Lansdale to put on a zombie walk, which doubles as the canned good drive.
"We wanted to extend the haunt to everybody in town, especially now, as people love zombies," said Lady Despaira.
Zombie walks are popular in towns like Salem, Massachusetts and Monroeville, PA, where they have a Day of the Dead and annual zombie walk where they collect food for the needy.
"I wanted to start that here and extend fun and good will to the town," she said.
Signups will soon be available on the Discover Lansdale site here and the Old Bloodworth Manor site here.
Here's another scoop: Despaira and Discover Lansdale are looking to bring back a haunted house to Lansdale next year, as Old Bloodworth Manor is closing down in 2014.
"Next year, we are moving off-site to a professional site," Despaira said. "We are taking a breather."
She said she would love to bring a haunt to Lansdale.
"Lansdale is one of the locations that is approaching us to put on a professional haunt for next year," she said.
Lansdale Parks and Recreation Committee Chairwoman and council Vice President Mary Fuller said the Lansdale Jaycee's haunted house was always popular.
"They don't have a place to do it. Hopefully, we can find usable space in Lansdale to recreate a haunted house," Fuller said. "I think that's a market. I remember being at the Redner's shopping center, when it was an Acme, and the lines for the haunted house would be all through the lot. I think it's a good community event."
Fuller is anxious to see how the zombie walk turns out.
"I think it will catch on," she said. "Halloween, in my opinion, has grown in popularity. Last year's First Friday Halloween event was well attended, and the kids had fun dressing up for a costume contest and trick or treating in the downtown. But there isn't a real Halloween theme in Lansdale."
The Halloween season, Despaira said, is the best time of the year, in her opinion.
"I love Halloween. You can be anything at all," she said. "It's like being a kid for a day."