41st annual St. Patrick's Day parade is next Sunday

By JESSICA HARDIN

jhardin@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

Daylight saving time will push back sunsets starting next Sunday, but signs of spring will likely end there for the 41st annual Mahoning Valley St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

The forecast predicts wet weather, with a high of 41 degrees.

The parade, which steps off at 1 p.m., spans 1.5 miles from McClurg Road to Southwoods Avenue north along Market Street.

The theme of this year’s event is “A Celebration of Irish Music.”

Trophies for Best of Parade and Best Irish Theme will be awarded, as well as awards for Best Themed Float, Best Band, Best Drum Line, Best Novelty Unit and Best Color Guard.

This year’s special reviewing stand attraction will be the Owens Construction BMX Stunt Team.

Each year, the parade names a grand marshal and Lord Mayor of Kilkenny and bestows The Ockerman Award.

Maureen Collins, this year’s grand marshal, is the co-founder of Easy Street Productions, Youngs-town’s first and only professional-stock theater company.

Collins has long lived out her passion for community service and regularly performs naturalization ceremonies at the county courthouse.

Lenny Fisher has been named the Lord Mayor of Kilkenny. Since 1985, Fisher has been the owner and president of Handel’s Ice Cream, which was mentioned on the 2015 National Geographic’s 10 Best of Everything list as the top ice cream in the world.

The position of Lord Mayor harkens back to Youngstown’s “Little Kil-kenny.”

The area was home to the city’s Irish immigrants, explained parade president Joyce Kale-Pesta.

The 2019 Ockerman Award recipient is Buzz Kelty, who has served as a marshal since the first parade in 1978. The award’s namesake is Bill Ockerman, the parade’s first head marshal.

The parade is sponsored by the Mahoning Valley Irish Organizations, The Vindicator and 21 WFMJ-TV.

The parade typically attracts tens of thousands of spectators each year and has been recognized as one of the largest annual parades in the state.