Come noon Saturday, March 13, floats decorated with green balloons, leprechauns and lucky four-leaf clovers will make their way through downtown as Bellingham’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade paints the streets green. But the color green will be a theme in  more ways than one, as many of the floats will be environmentally "green" too.

Janet Lightner, manager of Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro and initiator of the parade said she had thought about trying to put together a St. Patrick’s Day parade for years, but began planning the parade with a committee around two months ago.

Lightner said St. Patrick’s Day has always been a big deal at Boundary Bay Brewery. Boundary Bay has an annual sale on all their green clothing and Irish step-dancers come in to perform traditional dances around the brewery on St. Patrick’s Day. But Lightner wanted to see the fun of St. Patrick’s Day turn into a community event.

Lightner and fellow committee members Teresa Schmidt, David Wiggs, Lori York and Dan Hewitt came up with the idea to make the parade not only green because of the holiday’s traditional color, but also centered around “green” energy.  

“Having a green theme to the parade will showcase the dedication and devotion of Bellingham’s use of green energy,” Lightner said.

She said although they hope to have the parade as environmentally friendly as possible, they were not exclusive to green-energy entries this year because it is their first attempt to hold the parade.

Lightner said she thinks there are 25 entries, but not all of those are green-powered floats. Only green-energy-powered floats will be judged, Lightner said.

She said Boundary Bay is planning on entering a float designed from their rowboat logo.     

“We are using a small biodiesel Toyota pickup to pull our float through the parade,” Lightner said.

Eddie Pankow, owner of Mac and Mac Electric, said he is excited to be part of Bellingham’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade.

“We build electric cars, so we plan on bringing one of them and driving it through the parade,” Pankow said.

Pankow said his company was not well-prepared for the parade this year since it was planned on such sort notice. He said Mac and Mac Electric plans on being part of the parade in the future and can better prepare to work on a float or a car specifically for the parade in the years to come.  

Another participant who will be driving their clean-energy car in the parade is Bellingham Automotive.

Chelsea Beebe of Bellingham Automotive said she heard about the parade from a customer. Beebe said she thought it sounded like a cool, locally-based activity that the company would like to be part of.

“We plan on decorating our hybrid Prius with green balloons and maybe a green leprechaun hat,” Beebe said.

Along with the cars and floats there will also be nonprofit organizations, such as the Alternative Humane Society, whose volunteers plan to walk with a couple of foster dogs, as well as some of the volunteers’ own dogs.

“We will have green bandanas on the dogs, along with each dog’s name, adoption and volunteer information,” said Naomi Pollack, a volunteer at the Alternative Humane Society.

Pollack said the Alternative Humane Society loves to participate in events such as the St. Patrick’s Day parade because it lets people know they are out there and it gives the organization a chance to show some of the dogs that are in need of good homes.

 Lightner said she sees the parade becoming a big public event that will allow everybody to come together and have fun. In the future, planners would like to rent the downtown Depot Market Square and hold a get-together at the end of the parade.

“Definitely plan on the St. Patrick’s Day ‘green’ parade becoming a tradition,” Lightner said. “I tell my kids they can write on my gravestone: ‘Founder of the Bellingham Green St. Patrick’s Day Parade.'"

Comments (1)

Posted by Aaliyah, on Mar. 20, 2010 01:07AM Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage. March 17th marks the Feast of St. Patrick, or St. Patrick's Day – and that means St. Patrick's Day celebration. For some, it means a parade, or having to wear green (even though Patrick himself is actually associated with the color blue), and many make or order Irish food (though corned beef and cabbage is actually a Jewish dish) and a lot of people just spend a payday loans worth on getting absolutely hammered. You can dress your kids up as Leprechauns if you wish – that's always cute, or you can do it yourself, if you're really short. I wonder what the Irish themselves think of how we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Report

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