St. Charles rolled out the green carpet Saturday for the annual St. Patrick’s Parade where families, friends and neighbors came to celebrate the culture of the Emerald Isle.
The parade featured 90 units including business floats and several bands. Thousands of people lined the parade route down Main Street from Sixth Street to Fourth Avenue. St. Charles taverns and restaurants along the route were packed as well.
Mary Thrasher of Oswego performed with the Chicago Celtic Pipe Band at the parade.
“We hope our music inspires the crowds to feel joyful,” Thrasher said.
Thrasher donned a County Louth tartan for the event.
“County Louth is the tiniest county in Ireland,” she said.
The Chicago Celtic Pipe Band was founded in 1997 by the Enright family and close friends to bring Celtic music to the Chicago area.
“We want people to feel a sense of belonging when we perform. The Irish culture is very welcoming. It doesn’t matter where you are from. We encourage people to come celebrate with us,” she said.
The St. Charles Business Alliance organizes the annual parade, which began in 2000. There were business floats, the St. Charles East High School Marching Band and a unit that represented the local St. Patrick Catholic School at the parade.
Jon Cameron sported a tall green hat and faux red beard for the festivities. He marched with his employer Cada Pools & Spas in the parade.
His descendants emigrated from County Cork in Ireland, he said.
“It’s always nice to celebrate our Irish heritage. I come from a long line of hard-working Irishmen,” Cameron said.
Megan (Malone) Gonzalez viewed the parade from the Main Street Bridge with her two children, Andrew, 4, and Sophia, 5 months old.
“I want my kids to experience their Irish culture,” the Campton Hills mother said. “Being Irish is about the love to have fun, good food and drinks.”
Geneva resident Ravi Vaghani came with his children and his sister-in-law’s children to the parade on Saturday.
“We embrace all cultures,” Vaghani said. “We originally are from India and have been living in the area for 25 years. We want to embrace all cultures. It doesn’t matter what race or culture it is. We want our kids to appreciate all cultures.”
Joe Tumminaro embraced his Irish side of the family at the parade with his two children Ellis, 4, and Estella, 3, and has a third child due in a month.
“I’m part Italian and Irish. My mother’s great-great-grandparents emigrated to the U.S. a long time ago,” he said.
The Roselle resident didn’t mind the chill in the air or snow flurries on Saturday.
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“We always come to the parade, and my mother makes corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. I enjoy the Irish beer too,” he said.
The annual St. Patrick’s Parade is a big undertaking that requires volunteers to organize the units, manage the pace and ensure safety, St. Charles Business Alliance Chief Marshal Steve Martin said at the start of the parade route.
“We have 14 city blocks plus two parking lots that are for the staging area,” Martin said. “We also have 20 marshals that create order out of chaos in the staging area. We have 90 entries and over 1,000 people walking in the parade. It’s a big one.
“We hope people have an appreciation for the amount of effort that the volunteers put in to produce an entertaining parade,” the retired St. Charles banker said. “An appreciation for the Irish is the bottom line.”
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.