Most kids count candy on Halloween night after their face paint has streaked and the jack-o'-lanterns have burned out. But 8-year-old Micayla Handler was counting, multiplying, dividing and charting mounds of candy for 175 children before the first frost was on the pumpkin.

Micayla, of Squirrel Hill, volunteered to co-chair the Reserve Township Halloween Parade when it appeared that the north suburban community might lack the means and manpower for its annual event.

Little witches and monsters have marched in that parade for 23 years, receiving prizes for costumes and complementary treat bags and lunch. But this year, a tight budget and the loss of a volunteer chairman haunted the Reserve commissioners.

Micayla heard her grandfather, Dave Barie, president of the Reserve commissioners, and other commissioners discussing the specter of a cancellation.

"We needed someone to step up," said Reserve Commissioner Jim Helfrich. "Micayla offered her help, and I said, 'I'll take it.' "

The parade was held Sunday -- with lots of help from Micayla.

In a letter to potential donors that accompanied a handwritten letter by Micayla, Mr. Helfrich wrote: "Micayla wanted to make sure the rest of the children were able to have a parade this year. … She is very young in age, but old in spirit."

That spirit led Micayla, a third-grader at Winchester Thurston School in Shadyside, to expand her goodwill effort into a math project. "Just for fun," she said.

Toting a pumpkin-colored binder decorated with hand-drawn ghosts, Micayla accompanied Mr. Barie and Mr. Helfrich to a Sam's Club, where they scoured the shelves for candy to fill treat bags and compared prices.

"[Mr. Barie and I] used calculators, and she checked our math," Mr. Helfrich said, laughing.

"I had to calculate how many kids there will be and how much candy was in each bag, and how much each kid would get," Micayla explained, referring to neatly typed charts in her binder.

She calculated that for 175 children, she would need three 48-count boxes of M&Ms at a cost of $70.44, and that with a bag of 360 lollipops, each child could get two, with 10 leftover.

Micayla spent many after-school and weekend hours writing letters to solicit prizes for costumes, calculating costs and sketching a map of the refreshment line. For a game, she decided on "Guess the weight of the pumpkin."

"It's huge!" she said. "I slapped it and said, 'Whoa, now that's a big pumpkin!' "

Micayla, who was outweighed by the 521/2-pound pumpkin, oversaw seven adults -- including a Reserve police officer -- stuffing 175 bags with treats, including Tootsie Rolls, Twizzlers, Goldfish snacks and granola bars.

She insisted on including the healthier treats and asked her dentist to donate toothbrushes, although she also chose some of her favorite candy, including cherry cola Dum Dum Pops.

Micayla, who dressed as a "dark angel" for Sunday's parade, led the procession in a police car and didn't need a microphone for announcing lunch, door prizes and best costume winners.

"I wanted to do the whole job," she said.

Parade planning is "pretty hard," Micayla acknowledged. "I had to miss one of my after-school programs, Brilliant Bookworms, to do this. But it was worth it."

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