PITTSTON — Despite below freezing temperatures, the Fourth Annual Pittston St. Patrick’s Parade persisted — and the green-clad crowd was rewarded for its bravery with another year of song, dance, shirts, hats and candy. A lot of candy.
Marching bands, social clubs, youth sports organizations and more paraded down Main Street, fighting against wind, temperatures in the low 20s and, as the parade came to a conclusion, a brief sight of snow. City Event Coordinator Sarah Donahue said there’s no way to prepare for the weather, but she was still pleased with the event’s reception.
“We had a good turnout and people came with so much positive energy,” she said.
Neither Donahue nor Pittston City Police could give an estimated public attendance. Purple Squirrel Pastry Company’s Cindi Pape said she usually starts serving customers around 8 a.m. on parade day, but didn’t experience steady business until around 11 a.m. Pape said parade day is still a big deal for the pastry company, which sits on the parade route at 8 N. Main St., despite the weather.
“It’s nice because people will come down and not even know we were here, or a lot of the other small businesses are here,” Pape said. “It’s great for us.”
The Purple Squirrel goes green for parade day with festive cupcakes and cookies. Pape said her biggest seller is usually hot cocoa; her staff spends “hours, hours and hours” preparing it for the day’s event.
When it comes to the parade itself, the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee works every year preparing the mobile celebration that passes by The Purple Squirrel and other businesses on the city’s Main Street. For the 2017 parade, the committee chose Tom Reilly, president of Reilly and Associates engineering and a friend to the parade committee, as grand marshal.
“I think we should make a movie out of this, it’s so nice,” Reilly said as he rode down Main Street atop a convertible.
Reilly wasn’t the only person seemingly unaffected by the cold. Duryea resident Tyler Resciniti, 20, was dressed in little more than a green body suit covered in shamrocks. Parade participants pointed at Resciniti as they drove by, acknowledging his dedication to the celebration. The Penn State student, home for spring break, was attending his first Pittston St. Patrick’s Parade.
“I thought I was going to come scare some children today when, instead, they want to get pictures with me,” Resciniti said. “I think I’m just going to run up and down Main Street.”
Resciniti may have won Best Costume if he ran in the Leprechaun Loop 5k Run/Walk, held an hour before the St Patrick’s Parade began. The pre-parade event started in front of Greater Pittston YMCA and looped onto Kennedy Boulevard before circling back to the YMCA. Run/Walk Coordinator Tiffany Ferentino said approximately 200 participants took part in the event, including 11-year-old Pittston resident Aiden O’Hare.
O’Hare’s goal was to beat eight minutes. His strategy?
“Drop anchor at the Columbus statue,” O’Hare said at the conclusion of the race. “I ran from there to here really fast.”
O’Hare said his goal next year is to “do the same thing.”
There’s something to be said for consistency; hopefully, Mother Nature’s goal for the 2018 parade doesn’t involve another below-freezing high temperature.
