66 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • MARCH 1, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
St. Pat’s for All march this Sunday
promotes Ireland, journalism & peace
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
Sunnyside and Woodside will be seeing
green this Sunday as thousands take
part in the St. Pat’s for All Parade.
One of the city’s earliest celebrations
of St. Patrick’s Day, the festivities take
place beginning at 1 p.m. on Sunday,
March 4, in Sunnyside at the corner
of Skillman Avenue and 43rd Street.
Musicians, community organizations,
youth groups and proud marchers
of Irish descent will wind their way
through local streets before ending up
in Woodside at the corner of Woodside
Avenue and 58th Street.
Now in its 19th renewal, the march
was the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade
in New York City to welcome members
of the LGBT community to participate
together under a banner. Even as the
St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan
now permits LGBT organizations to
march, the St. Pat’s for All Parade continues
its tradition, and has grown into
one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations
in the entire city.
Just like last year, the 2018 St. Pat’s
for All March has two grand marshals:
award-winning New York Times journalist
Dan Barry and producer/activist
Dr. Kathleen Sullivan.
During his tenure at The New York
Times, Barry has worked at all kinds
of beats, from covering tragedies
such as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and
Hurricane Katrina; to heading up (at
various times) the City Hall, police and
Long Island bureaus.
Sullivan, meanwhile, has spent much
of her career devoted toward encouraging
nuclear disarmament around the
world. She is director of Hibakusha
Stories, an arts-based program that
tells the stories of those who survived
the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic
bombings at the end of World War
II to generations of schoolchildren.
Photo by Josef Pinlac
Sullivan is also credited for helping
the United Nations pass last July the
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons.
If you’re interested in participating,
visit stpatsforall.org for more details.
The St. Pat’s for All Parade in Woodside is on March 4.
Here’s your guide to the fi rst-ever Bayside St. Patrick’s Day Parade
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Bring out the Irish in you at this homegrown
celebration in Bayside next month.
Th e fi rst Bayside Saint Patrick’s Day
Parade will take place on March 24,
beginning at 10 a.m. Th e family-friendly
event will run along Bell Boulevard
between 36th and 41st Avenues and celebrate
Irish heritage and culture.
Kieran Mahoney, a Bayside local and
one of the event organizers, told QNS
that close to 20 community groups will
participate in the parade. Irish pipe bands
and dance schools, as well as groups from
local institutions including Holy Cross
High School, Our Lady of the Blessed
Sacrament Catholic Academy and Sacred
Heart Catholic Academy of Bayside, are
among the groups slated to march.
Due to a strong response from local
groups, organizers had to move up the
date to accept applications to march.
“We’re getting larger than we expected,”
Mahoney said. “I’m not completely surprised
at the response, but I am surprised
about just how many people want to be
involved and have reached out to us.”
Mahoney fi rst spoke to QNS in October,
when the parade was still in the planning
stages. Since then, the event has been
cemented and grown to an “overwhelming
level.”
“It defi nitely has grown much more
since our original conversation” the organizer
noted. “For the fi rst year, it really
has been unbelievable.”
Over the last few months, Mahoney
and other members of the Bayside St.
Patrick’s Day Committee have organized
a series of events to either raise funds
or “keep the momentum going” leading
up to the event. In January, around
250 attendees attended a dinner dance at
VIVO! Mediterranean Grill & Catering
celebrating the parade honorees. A series
of Irish music events continue to take
place at local bar and eatery, Monahan &
Fitzgerald.
A number of local businesses have also
signed on as event sponsors.
Th e grand marshal for the parade is
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association
of the City of New York (NYCPBA)
President Pat Lynch. March aides are
Mary McCauley, Jeff Reinhart, Francis
McLoughlin, Fr. Robert Whelan and
Frank Talty. Plans are being made to produce
a program, which will list all community
participants and be distributed
the day of the event.
Th e public is invited to attend the free
community event. Th ose interested in
learning more or getting event updates
should visit the group’s Facebook page or
contact Mahoney at mahoneybaysideat
gmail.com. A website is in the works.
Photo via Flickr/jwpearce