By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The St. Patrick's Day parade had been an annual St. Joseph staple for 34 years before COVID-19 forced its cancellation in 2020.
One year later, the St. Joseph Ancient Order of Hibernians is moving ahead with plans to hold the 35th annual parade on Saturday, March 13 starting at noon.
St. Joseph AOH member Shane McDonald says the decision to hold a parade this year was not a "slam dunk," but he's optimistic the event can go on safely.
"We thought that since it is an outside event, and we are encouraging masks and social distancing," McDonald said on KFEQ's The Hotline. "Not only from the people along the parade route, but the parade participants as well. We think people are ready to get out and have a good time, and we trust they'll do the socially responsible things."
The parade route will start at Noyes Boulevard and then go north to Frederick Avenue, go west toward downtown and go along Francis Street. It'll then turn south down 8th street and go west down Felix Street, ending at the corner of 5th and Felix - right next to Felix Street Pub and the Tiger's Den.
"The bars will be open, and people will be out," McDonald reiterated. "Please, please be sensible about what you do. We can't encourage that enough."
McDonald expects a little more than half the number of floats that there are normally in the parade, and says anyone interested in having a float in the procession can fill out an entry form at StJoeAOH.com.
"We encourage people to go to that website, get some more information about the parade and put in a float," McDonald said. "Put it an entry."
While the number of entries are a bit lower than normal right now, McDonald says it's not uncommon for participants to wait until the last minute to see if the weather changes.
"People generally do kind of wait until the last minute to jump in," McDonald said. "And we understand that. That's fine. It's a dicey time of year. It can be great, or it can be nasty. But, we hope the weather holds off for us and people can come out."
Saturday's forecast does call for cloudy skies, a chance of rain and highs in the 50s, with a chance of rain nearly every day this week starting Wednesday.
"It shouldn't deter us much," McDonald said of the rain possibility.
St. Joseph will feature one of the bigger St. Patrick's Day parades in the entire state this year. St. Louis and Kansas City have already called off their St. Patrick's Day festivities this year.
McDonald said the decision was made amongst the Ancient Order of Hibernians within the last 4-5 weeks to have the parade.
St. Joseph is likely the largest city in the state to have a St. Patrick's Day parade this year. The hope now is the weather, and the general public, will cooperate.
"We're hoping for good weather and we're hoping for good crowds," McDonald said. "There will be all kinds of celebrations, as there usually are, after the parade in the local establishments. We encourage and really want people to be socially responsible about their celebrations this year."
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