Parade Plans Come Together

We are official in "Irish Season" now. March has just begun and our duties for the 56th annual modern day Greater New Haven St. Patrick's Day Parade continue to grow.

To date we have held 24 fundraising events, our first, starting in July. These events have had almost every demographic covered. They have ranged from Irish Night at the New Britain Rock Cats baseball game, Shamrock Golf Tournament, Wine Tasting, Green Egg's and Ham breakfast, multiple band nights at local pubs, two Pub Crawls, two Trivia Nights a Public Safety night and of course a Corned Beef Dinner. Just to mention a few. Click here to see some pictures.

Our twenty-fifth event will take place this Saturday, March 3. This is our annual Parade Ball, a highlight to our year long fundraising efforts for the Parade. This black-tie optional evening at Yale University includes dinner and dancing till midnight. Here we honor three residents of Connecticut who have given back to their community. This year’s recipients and awards are;

James J. Dinnan Distinguished Service Award:  This award is given annually to an outstanding resident of the State of Connecticut who is recognized for his/her unselfish dedication and contributions to fellow Americans. – 2012 Award recipient, William Clark, a resident of New Haven, CT.

Cornelius Driscoll Award:  This award is given for outstanding public service. – 2012 Award recipient, William Barone, a resident of Hamden.

Appreciation Award:  This award is presented to an individual whose dedication contributes to promoting Irish culture in the community. – 2012 Award recipient, Sean Scollan, a resident of Hamden.

Also being honored this evening will be, our newly elected 2012 Grand Marshal, Kevin A. Smith, a resident of Hamden.

Branford resident, Anne Hines, is this year’s Parade Ball Chairwoman. Anne has informed us ticket sales have ended for this event on Feb. 25th. Anne and her committee have done a wonderful job planning this lovely evening. It is a bit hectic at times. While planning CT’s largest single day event, the Parade, we plan a semi-formal dinner for over 300 - 400 guests the weekend before! But somehow, with the help of a great volunteer group, we get it done. Proceeds from this event help to fund the Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

I’ll have pictures and some comments from the events in our next update. For those that would like to help fund the Parade, please visit www.stpatricksdayparade.org Thank you!