Sunnyside-Woodside Parade This Sunday
Sunnyside and Woodside will go green this Sunday, Mar. 2, for the annual St. Pat’s For All Parade.
As announced by Brendan Fay and Kathleen Walsh D’Arcy, the parade committee’s co-chairs, the march celebrating Irish heritage and culture will begin at 2 p.m. sharp from the corner of Skillman Avenue and 47th Street in Sunnyside.
Participants will begin assembling at the intersection at 1 p.m., and the parade will get underway following opening remarks from elected officials and other dignitaries in attendance.
Once the march gets underway, paraders will walk east along Skillman Avenue then turn north on 56th Street to Woodside Avenue. From there, the parade will turn back east along Woodside Avenue to 58th Street, where it will conclude.
Organizers will hold a postparade party at Saints and Sinners pub, located on 60th Street off Roosevelt Avenue.
All participants and onlookers are encouraged to dress warmly and appropriately for any weather, as the parade will take place rain, snow or shine.
The St. Pat’s For All Parade is the only St. Patrick’s Day march in the city open to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. It annually attracts an assortment of elected officials, marching bands, entertainers, youth groups and other guests.
This year’s parade figures to have an increase in political presence, as Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council announced they would not march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan on Mar. 17. The boycott protests theAncient Order of Hibernians’ prohibition of LGBT groups marching under banners supporting gay causes.
America’s largest Irish-Catholic organization, The Ancient Order of Hibernians has organized the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City since the late 1700s. This will be the first time since 1993 that New York City’s mayor declined to participate in the march.
Though the City Council will not officially be represented at the Manhattan march, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito stated on Tuesday, Feb. 25, members of the legislature may participate on their own behalf. Several city lawmakers supporting the boycott- including City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley-said they would instead march in Sunday’s St. Pat’s For All Parade.
Two grand marshals will lead this year’s Sunnyside/Woodside St. Pat’s march: former State Sen. Thomas Duane, a gay rights activist and one of the same-sex marriage law’s main sponsors; and Terry McGovern of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, who founded the HIV Law Project in 1989.
“Whether in exile, fleeing famine or pursuing dreams and hopes for liberty, equality and happiness, the Irish through the centuries have scattered across the globe, always enhancing the communities they join,” Fay and D’Arcy said in an open letter on the parade’s website. “Here in New York, St. Pat’s for All 2014 is a generous coming together of business, community groups, unions, artists and musicians who, for a few hours, turn the streets of Sunnyside and Woodside into ‘Ireland of the welcomes.'”
For more information on the march, visit www.stpatsforall.com.
It was noted that parking along the length of the parade route will be prohibited as of midnight Sunday and until after the parade’s conclusion. Signs will be posted by the Police Department in advance of the event.
Any vehicle found parked along the route Sunday can and will be towed away at the owner’s expense.
