MANASQUAN — Hundreds made it out to The Salty Whale in Manasquan on a bitterly cold Sunday for this year’s first fundraiser for the Belmar/Lake Como St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Sunday’s fundraiser is the first in a series of seven fundraisers for the Belmar/Lake Como St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which is scheduled for Sunday, March 2. Drawing some 200,000 spectators in previous years, it remains New Jersey’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The fundraiser was hosted by the Women of Irish Heritage Jersey Shore (WOIHJS) and the parade committee. Chip Cavanagh, chairman of the parade committee, told The Coast Star that, much like the event itself, the string of fundraisers leading up to the parade has become a tradition.
“We have a fundraiser almost every Sunday leading up to the parade, except for Super Bowl Sunday,” said Cavanagh. “People come out year after year. It’s a great way for people to have fun, and we get to make some money to put the parade down the street.”
The parade, first held in 1974, draws significant attention to Belmar, Lake Como and other Shore towns in the off season, capitalizing on the area’s reputation as the “Irish Riviera.”
This year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be led by two grand marshals who are active in the local Irish community, Fran Griffin and Matthew Lee. Cavanagh spoke about the significance of their selection as marshals.
“A lot of people really don’t know Matt, because he’s behind-the-scenes,” said Cavanagh. “He’s been doing our ad journal for years, and he does a lot of things for us in the background with organizing the parade. He’s a member of the Old Bridge (Friendly Sons of the) Shillelagh and is a member of the pipe band there, too.”
“Fran Griffin has been a longtime member of the parade committee,” he said. “Every year she announces the parade for us; I think it’s been 15 years. She does a lot for the Irish community and is really a great person.”
Lee told The Coast Star what it meant to him personally to be selected as grand marshal of the parade.
“It means a lot; family history has always been important,” said Lee. “We have a lot of connections with my family, tied back to home — to Ireland. I’ve been involved in the parade committee for 15 years and been a member of the Shillelagh club even longer. So, for me to be involved and something like this feels great.”
“Leading up to it, (being grand marshal) is a lot of drumming up interest and getting notice for the parade, being out at these fundraisers and celebrating with everybody. I look at the day of the parade as more of a celebration, just enjoying myself going down the street,” he said.
Griffin felt similarly, and explained that during her march she will be carrying a special — and undoubtedly Irish — family heirloom.
“In the town in Morris County where I grew up, they had their first St. Patrick’s Day parade back in the ‘70s,” she said. “And my father donated the banner for the group that was leading the parade, in memory of his father; my brothers, my sister and I carried it down the street that day with my parents marching behind us.”
“My father was carrying his grandfather’s blackthorn walking shillelagh,” said Griffin, “and I will be carrying that same shillelagh on parade day.”
This Saturday, Jan. 11, the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh (FSOS) will host the second fundraising event at its facility at 15 Oak St. in Old Bridge, from 7 to 11 p.m. for a $25 donation. The event will feature dinner, including beer and wine, alongside Eamonn Ryan and FSOS Pipes and Drums as evening entertainment.
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Coast Star—on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.
Check out our other Manasquan stories, updated daily. And remember to pick up a copy of The Coast Star—on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.
Subscribe today! If you're not already an annual subscriber to The Ocean Star, get your subscription today! For just $38 per year, you will receive local mail delivery weekly, with pages and pages of local news and online access to our e-edition on Starnewsgroup.com.
 6x10 4c.jpg)
