A sure sign that spring is on the way is the Ocean County St. Patrick’s Day Parade and hopefully the weather will cooperate for this Saturday’s march through Seaside Heights. This is the 25th anniversary of what’s become a terrific event that is enjoyed by young and old alike. Parade organizers are hopeful that the silver anniversary will result in a larger than normal turnout as some 75,000 people attended last year and they expect as many as 100,000 to come out this weekend.
While the focus of the parade is fun and celebrating the Irish heritage of many who live at the Jersey Shore, there will be a somewhat serious side
and that is to help re-stock the badly depleted Food Banks in our area. With that in mind Saturday’s parade will also serve as a giant food drive and officials are asking everyone to bring just one nonperishable food item to the parade. Members of the Monmouth and Ocean County Building Trades and Monmouth-Ocean AFL-CIO Labor Council along with teamsters will man numerous drop-off containers that will be placed along the parade route. This will be done during the morning and collection will take place just before the parade steps off at noon. Organizations, including schools, churches and others can aid this effort by holding their own collections and them bringing everything to the parade on Saturday. All the food collected will be distributed to a number of area food banks, all of which have been receiving more requests than ever for help during these difficult economic times.
The parade itself will of course feature Bands, Floats, Bagpipers, Mummers, Leprechauns and marchers from all over the state and region. As one who attended the first one and most of the others it’s great to see how it’s grown over the years. It’s not just a great day for the Irish but for everyone who attends and hopefully many will indeed answer the call and help our area food banks as well.
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