The 12th annual St. Paddy’s Parade will be Friday, March 18, 2011 at 5:00 in Old Forge. The Parade is being sponsored by the Central Adirondack Association, Souvenir Village and the Foley Law Firm.

The Parade will begin at Keyes’s Pancake House in Old Forge. Owner, Tom Timmerman, has supported the Parade over the years by allowing the floats and groups to gather in his parking areas before the Parade, where most groups have fine- tuned their entries. Tom’s parking lot and the surrounding streets have been needed in recent years, because the Parade has grown each year.

The first Parade started in the parking lot of the Old Forge Post Office. That year, in bitter cold weather, there were about 15 groups of participants. Tim Foley, co-chair of the event with his wife Patty, Chip Kiefer, and his wife, Katie, remembers that first year well. “I think that we counted every fire truck, every dog, and every person in the Parade to come up with our final total of 15 groups. We had very few people watching the Parade because those brave souls were in the Parade”.

Kiefer also remembers those early Parades and how important each and every entry was in the Parade. “Tim and our wives always had the New York City Parade as our model of a really big St. Paddy’s Day parade. To that end, every fire truck, green pickup, or motorized vehicle was important to our Parade, and they all helped make our Parade longer”.

Very soon, the committee discussed how to make the Parade even longer, so the change from the Post Office parking lot to the parking lot at Keyes Pancake House was finalized. This didn’t make the Parade longer, just the Parade route. But the Parade was slowing growing.

So many other changes have taken place over the years. Politicians weren’t in the Parade in the beginning. However, a young upstart politician named Robert Moore saw the annual parade as an opportunity to jumpstart his political career. Carrying a sign and walking by himself, he ran for the Supervisor’s position that had been vacated by the retiring George Hiltebrant.

Another politician that was an early participant was Herkimer County Legislator, Bernie Peplinski from West Winfield. As he has said many times over the years of participating in the Parade, his green heritage comes from a Polish background, but he always feels Irish in Old Forge. Bernie has only missed one or two parades since the beginning.

A tall politician became an early annual participant. He saw the Parade as an essential way to stay in touch with his northern voters. Assemblyman Marc Butler has made the Old Forge parade a part of his March travels for most of the last decade. In recent years, he has also brought along Senator Jim Seward to march up our Main Street.

Many other participants have been in the Parade year in and year out, like leprechaun Bill Corrigan (owner of Wilcor Distributing in Schuyler) and the late Dr.Bill Christy (tuba player extraordinaire). A bagpiper has led the Parade almost every year, along with Old Forge police officer Kevin Birtle. Each year the Parade is blessed by either the priest of St. Bart’s Catholic Church, or Reverend Jim or Reverend Lawrence of Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church. In recent years, parade judging has taken place, most notably by the Syracuse ladies headed up by our own Karen Kellogg (daughter of Ash and Linda Kellogg). With judging, came announcing, done by the likes of Jeff Craig, Nick Bankert, and Gary Staab. Video recording of the Parade was begun some years ago by Dave Langworthy, and now includes production work by Travis Kiefer, showing from year to year the growth of the Parade.

The Parade in 2010 marked the longest parade yet. Not only were many, many local groups and politicians in the parade, but the Parade had all four national snowmobile manufacturer’s trailers, fire equipment from Old Forge, Eagle Bay, Otter Lake, Inlet, Big Moose and Raquette Lake, and several groups of people from outside the area, that have made Old Forge a vacation destination throughout the year.

The Parade has become a part of not just Old Forge, but of the local communities. Inlet, Eagle Bay, Big Moose, Otter Lake and Raquette Lake have had members of their communities in the Parade since the beginning. Since the beginning, the Old Forge Fire Department has been the site of the after Parade Irish Stew contest.

As our St. Paddy Parade grows, so does the tradition of participation for many people, young and old alike. May we always stay green in March each year.