A swell of people, young and old alike, hit the sidewalk of Ashmun Street in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for the town’s first annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.
“Everyone’s welcome, whether you’re Irish or not!” said Linda Hoath of the Sault Ste. Marie Convention & Visitors Bureau, moments before leading St. Paddy’s revelers down the street.
Organizer Anthony Stackpoole told SooToday that growing up in Detroit, he would always participate in ‘giant’ St. Patrick’s Day parades that went down Woodward Ave.
Now, he’s trying to bring that same atmosphere to Sault Michigan.
“I remember doing that forever as a kid, and it’s something up in Sault Ste. Marie that I’ve been thinking about for the last five or six years,” Stackpoole said.
Stackpoole, who owns Cup of the Day coffee house and deli, worked with Rosemary Smith of the Eagle 95.1 radio station in order to get the parade up and running. Stackpoole says that is was Smith who had started the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in her hometown of Gaylord.
“I didn’t know what to expect, and we had a great turnout,” Stackpoole said.
The St. Patrick’s Day parade will be a bigger celebration next year, as cars, floats - and possibly a bagpiper - are already being lined up for next year.
“We had a permit with the city to get in the street, they applied to MDOT, and we decided we just wanted to start small and we kept it to the sidewalk this year,” Stackpoole said. “But next year, we will be in the street.”
“It will be bigger next year, I guarantee it.”