Past Grand Marshals

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO PUT ON A PARADE?

Simple question, but the answer is tough. The simple answer is “Lots of dedicated volunteers, sacrificing lots of time, to do lots of work.”

Unfortunately, the simple answer doesn’t begin to address what is involved. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade that marches up South Street each year only looks easy because of all the time and effort that goes into it. Truth is that it takes well in excess of 1000 hours of volunteer time. Some devote maybe 30-40 hours of their time and others, over 100 hours. Check out the earlier page in this journal to get an idea of how many people are involved.

The annual Morris County St. Patrick’s Day Parade held in Morristown results form the combined effort of the entire Parade Team that includes the Trustees of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade of Morris County, Inc, the Finance Committee and the Parade Committees:

Trustees oversee the whole operation and establish the guidelines to be followed for the two major committees. The trustees are all volunteers and consist of members of the parade organizers, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (FSSP) and The Irish American Association of Northwest Jersey (IAANJ). They are responsible assuring that the parade has the necessary support to be a success. They also select the Grand Marshal for each year with input from each of the committees.

Finance Committee, while of equal importance with the Parade Committee, is the most visible committee. They are responsible fundraising, payment of parade expenses and distribution of charitable contributions to parade beneficiaries, among them, Project Children and Project Graduation. The fund raising is so critical since the parade is paid for solely by private contributions and sponsoring companies. No public funds provided by the town, county or state. The ad journal is the primary fundraiser and they run the annual Grand Marshal reception. This committee is comprised of a number of committed volunteers who meet regularly, and solicit donations from local corporations, businesses and community members around Morris County.

Parade Committee may be the less visible, except on Parade Day, but their work is definitely no less important. They take pride in their strength being in their invisibility. When you enjoy the parade and they make it look like it was easy to put on, then they know they did their job. A lot of work and coordination, months of it as a matter of fact, has to occur before the Parade steps off at Noon on Parade Day. This committee is jointly run by the FSSP and IAANJ. Committee consists of members of each organization and members of the community. Their sole objective is to provide a fitting tribute to American Irish tradition and St. Patrick, and at the same time, provide Morris County citizens with a memorable and fun family day.

Let’s take quick look at what the different Parade sub committees do.
· Line of March team, the face of the Parade Committee, has months of work each year to identify and invite groups, review and approve applications to participate, respond to inquiries and requests for additional information, position groups in the line of march, conduct the parade orientation meeting, and make sure the parade steps off promptly at Noon. Being a “rain or shine” parade this team has to be prepared for anything and really appreciates a great parade day turnout.
· Invite bands to participate. Most of the bands return from year to year.
· Other sub-committee include:
- Police and Municipal Liaisons
- Publicity (Newspaper articles, radio and TV coverage, posters and banners around the county, etc).
- Raising both American and Irish flags.
- Parade starter selection
- Parade marshals for both parade lot and parade route
- Parade Day Kick-off Mass at Assumption Church
- Inviting VIP’s
- Painting shamrocks around the Green
- Placement and set-up reviewing stand
- Reviewing stand announcers
- Communications (e.g., walkie-talkies for extensive communication needed on parade day in parade lot and along parade route)
- Porta-john acquisition and placement at strategic locations for benefit of parade participants and spectators
- Parade lot set-up and clean up.

As you can see there are a lot of moving parts in running a parade and the success of the parade is the sum of all those parts. The one thing the Parade Team cannot control is the weather, so for that we count on prayer. However, even when it has rained, we have had successful parades, so it is clear that prayer works well.

Parade Day starts the night before with parade lot set-up and again at 6:15am with painting of the Shamrocks at the Green. Between painting of the shamrocks and the Noon start, parade marshals and coordinators post signs to the parade lot, get ready for the floats and parade vehicles to arrive and position themselves at gates and around the lot to direct and assist parade participants. First float usually arrives around 9:00am and for the next hour and half all the others arrive. It gets a little hectic but the team is experienced and keeps things looking pretty easy. The Parade Starter cuts the ribbon at Noon and the parade steps off immediately after that. Getting the parade started is always fun as it takes getting the first dozen groups out of the lot before it flows smoothly.

At 2:00pm this year’s parade is history. Shortly after parade the Parade team meets a few more times to go over what went right and discuss any opportunities for improvement that may have surfaced. Then, in a couple of months, planning starts for next year’s parade. Crunch time may be December through March, but as you can see, it’s a year round process.

And now, back to the simple answer…. Putting on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade takes “Lots of dedicated volunteers, sacrificing lots of time, to do lots of work.”

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY ! ! !