Denison St. Patrick’s Day parade is March 16
/Nominations for Irish Mother and grand marshal needed
Denison’s St. Patrick’s Day parade will take place on Saturday, March 16, in Uptown Denison.
Nominations for the parade’s Irish Mother and grand marshal will be taken through Wednesday, February 14, by St. Patrick’s Day Parade organizer Susan Grau.
“The only thing that I require is that they’re Irish,” she said. “It helps if they have roots in the Denison area or are active in the community.”
Grau said she keeps the nomination/selection process the way the late Brian O’Neill handled it. Whoever gets the most votes wins; ties are drawn from a hat.
“I’ve stuck with that,” she said.
As of Monday, she had four nominations for grand marshal and three for Irish Mother.
“I’m always looking for more,” Grau said. “I just ask people to send me a little explanation why a person should be considered.”
She said she appreciates nominations of individuals who have gone above and beyond in the community.
“It looks like we’ll have a little warmer weather than we did last year,” Grau said. “I’m not sure yet who is going to be carrying the colors; if it’s too cold, then the fire department will do that again.”
Anyone is welcome to join the parade.
She said she is looking for scouts and any kind of school group that would like to take part.
“We do have some floats in the parade that I know of and we may have a bagpipe player this year,” she said.
“We’re always trying to make it bigger and better.”
She encourages anyone with an old car or any kind of interesting vehicle to join the parade.
“We’d love to have members of our Hispanic population participate,” Grau said. “Last year, we had four or five businesses in the parade.”
The event is a good way for new area businesses to promote themselves, she said.
“It’s free and it gets lots of eyes on their business name,” Grau said.
The parade will line up between noon and 12:30 p.m. in front of the Denison Post Office.
“I do have some costumes, as well,” Grau said. “If someone needs a costume, I could get it to them before and pick it up after the parade.”
Grau may be contacted at 712-253-0725 or susangrau@msn.com.
For Irish Mother/grand marshal nominations, she requests an email that includes an explanation of why each individual should be considered.
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