All walk participants were required to make a donation, organizer and Lansing resident Steve Ward said.

Ward’s wife, Chenney, also helped with registration and T-shirt sales.

The walk started at Ferris Park, then moved south on Walnut Street to Ottawa Street and south on Capitol Avenue ending on the capitol’s front steps.

“There’s a big need in the community right now obviously with all the unemployment and all of the difficulties that everybody is having,” Steve Ward said. “It’s just a way that we can do something to help.”

The GLFB has received a steady level of produce because of the harvest season but other items such as non-perishable food are lacking, said Terry Link, executive director of the GLFB.
During the event, the GLFB received $150 and 748 pounds of food.

“We’re trying to provide a relatively good balance of options for people who come to us for food assistance,” he said.

It was a shock to be chosen as the beneficiary of a zombie walk, Link said. “I have to tell you that we were surprised but saw that other communities had done the same thing successfully,” he said.

Being able to help the food bank and have a good time brought Doug Stevens and his family from Midland, Mich., Stevens said.

“We like dressing up in this kind of stuff anyway,” said Stevens, who was dressed as a zombie version of Elvis Presley. “This is the first time I’ve done the Elvis look. I have been thinking about it for a couple years so this is a good trial run.”

The best way to create the peeling, saggy skin of a long-dead zombie is to use liquid latex and toilet paper, Ward said.

It can take more than an hour to apply the liquid latex, add a layer of toilet paper, seal it with another layer of liquid latex and let it dry, he said.

Although a new event in Lansing, zombie walks have been going on for years, Ward said. There have been walks across the country to raise
awareness about political issues and charities.

The goal of the event was to combine two passions of Ward’s — zombies and helping the food bank, he said.

Ward is writing his thesis for graduation from Lansing’s branch of Spring Arbor University for a $10,000 grant for the GLFB, he said.

The novelty of seeing costumed zombies roam the streets hopefully will bring awareness to the food bank, Ward said. “It’s good attention for the food bank because … it didn’t look like they had a lot of stuff in their warehouse right now,” he said. “It wasn’t empty, but it was a long ways from full.”