Tags Posts tagged with "Parade"

Parade

Photos by Greg Catalano

 

The American Legion Huntington Post 360 Memorial Day Parade commenced Monday at Gerard Street, turned left on West Neck Road before heading east on Main Street to Stewart Avenue.

Local first responders and firefighters marched proudly throughout the parade. Students from area schools also marched with their respective bands. Hundreds of community members, several of whom wore patriotic attire, clapped for the parade participants and enjoyed the warm, sunny day.  

On April 17, Easter Sunday, the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce hosted its 27th annual Easter parade.

Led by the Easter Bunny, dozens of children, parents and community members marched through the village streets. Starting from Theatre Three on Main Street, the parade route cut through East Main, and finally ended at the Port Jefferson Village Center. 

The event was concluded by a massive egg hunt in Harborfront Park, where participants scaled fences and sprinted long distances in pursuit of the precious hidden eggs.

After two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, folks young and old were finally able to enjoy their beloved St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Hosted by the Friends of St. Patrick, the 70-year-old tradition returned to the streets of Miller Place and Rocky Point where a sea of green made of marching band members, bagpipers, local fire departments, public figures, vintage cars and more flowed past waves of revellers.  

by -
0 1235

St. James community members stepped out of their homes and businesses to celebrate local veterans the morning of Nov. 11.

VFW Post 395 in St. James hosted its annual Veterans Day Parade. Elected officials, scouts, Smithtown school district bands and members of the St. James Fire Department joined veterans to march down Lake Avenue from Woodlawn Avenue to the St. James Elementary School.

A ceremony honoring the veterans capped off the event.

Photo by Julianne Mosher

With restrictions finally lifted, people from across Suffolk County — and even Connecticut — were able to finally celebrate the Fourth of July with a favorite traadition.

The Port Jefferson Fire Department Independence Day Parade was cancelled, along with most other events, last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But this year, things seemed back to normal with hundreds of people gathered on the sidewalks of Port Jefferson village, decked in their most patriotic wear, to celebrate America’s birthday. 

“I’m just glad that we’re back to some sort of normalcy,” said Todd Stumpf, department chief. “We’re glad to see the public back together to help celebrate the country’s birth.”

Vintage cars drove down the road, waving American flags out of their windows as excited kids and their families waved from the sidewalk. Children ran to their parents who marched in uniform when they spotted them from the sidelines. Dancers waved red, white, and blue pom poms whiles pipes and drums played their sounds. Even the Batmobile made an appearance. 

Although the parade included Port Jeff and Terryville, members from South Shore, eastern, and western Suffolk County departments joined together to march along Main Street on July 5. 

Since the Fourth of July was on a Sunday this year, the fire department decided to host the parade a day later, on Monday, to respect the local churches throughout the village. 

“From our end it ran really smooth,” said Steve Erland, third assistant chief. “It’s just so nice to bring it back to the community.”

by -
0 1132
A Port Jeff parking ambassador sanitizes a parking meter. Photo from Port Jefferson Village

As Long Island started with Phase 4 opening Wednesday, July 8, Port Jefferson village is active in debating a number of topics both related to the pandemic and not. Here are a few updates from the village’s July 6 meeting.

• Metered parking started up again in Port Jeff July 1. Monday through Wednesday will remain free parking, and parking ambassadors are going around on heavily trafficked days to disinfect meters. Some meters have been converted so people can pay with their phones by tapping their devices with either Google or Apple Pay to the meters.

Main Street remains open for curbside pickup only on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Otherwise it is open for 1 hour parking only during those same times.

• Village officials agreed to pay Andy Fortier Fine Woodworking and Design $10,857 to finish up the last designs for the Harborfront Park stage. This includes permanent railings up to the stage and postings at the edges of the stage footprint which will handle the decorative sails meant to cover over the stage. The sails will be rigged up like on a sailboat so they can lift and cover the stage. The money is coming out of the Farmers Market Trust Account, which is made up of the fees merchants pay the village to set up their stalls. 

• Texaco Park in Upper Port is open, though the basketball hoop was taken down to dissuade contact sports. Reopening other parks in the village is a little more controversial. 

The trustees debated opening up Rocketship Park, with Mayor Margot Garant and trustee Stan Loucks concerned with the amount of traffic the park gets. Trustee Kathianne Snaden argued that beaches are already open with kids playing there as well, and that the village could try and open it to “see how it goes.” 

The village parks department is said to be spraying down benches and other equipment in the mornings as a kind of “routine maintenance,” according tovillage administrator Joe Palumbo. 

Officials also talked about adding free-standing hand-sanitizing stations to park entrances or potentially limiting park hours and capacity while having a person on staff monitoring how many people are in the park at a time.

• Garant said the village is working to codify a new rule setting a moratorium on any new parades for the foreseeable future. This comes after this past week when a right wing Facebook group Setauket Patriots filed a permit for their own parade for the Fourth of July weekend after the fire department canceled its annual event. That parade was in part a political response to a Black Lives Matter march that came through Port Jefferson two weeks before. Village officials approved that march, though officials also had reservations about that event. 

While the village still has to set up a date for a public hearing on a moratorium, Garant said they are adding an emergency order for village employees to put any new parade applications under stay, for the time being. 

“I think we made a mistake, and we need to just stop now and be careful about how we’re moving forward,” the mayor said.

At the July 6 meeting, the board also retroactively publicly approved the Setauket Patriots parade after having been polled on the decision remotely. All approved the parade except Garant, who had previously recused herself from that original decision.

• The village re-upped its contract with Social Butterfly, a web and social media agency based in Port Jefferson for $2,000 a month. Garant said the agency does posts to the village’s Facebook page and establishes events for the page. They also work with Port Jefferson and the country club’s website regarding events. Snaden asked if the agency can give more up-to-date statistics for page views and offer ways to work with Facebook’s algorithms so more people can see village posts.

• Port Jefferson approved at a monthly cost of $1,000 Garland Industries for IT services for the operation and maintenance of the Foreup system software. Foreup is software for managing tee times and other marketing for golf clubs. Brian Macmillan, the general manager of the Port Jefferson Country Club, said it will streamline current services and send out emails to market country club membership. The village capped the services for four months through October, with a chance to reevaluate the program after that time. 

Green was the color of choice from Miller Place to Rocky Point as thousands lined the roads to celebrate the 69thannual Miller Place – Rocky Point St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 17.

With a cool, sunny day preceding the coming Spring, families sat along Route 25A from the Rocky Point Business District all the way into Miller Place and watched as members of the Miller Place, Rocky Point and Sound Beach fire departments walked in step to members of local family farms, the fife and pipe bands, marching bands, baton twirling teams and many, many more.

Before the parade even began, children and adults alike walked through the streets blasting from green plastic trumpets and horns, painted their faces with clovers and even brought their pets out dressed in Irish flair.

Residents in Huntington were dressed in green, contrasting well with the gray skies above. Despite a drizzling rain, thousands still stepped out dressed in St. Patrick’s Day flair to enjoy a day of Irish pride during the 85th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 10.

This year’s grand marshal was Timothy Rossiter, 72, a member of the Huntington division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and president of the Rossiter Financial Group. 

The march featured several drum and pipe bands, along with local groups including local Boy Scout troops, VFWs, New York State Nurses Association and many others.

All photos by David Ackerman

by -
0 1730
John McNamara. Photo from Ray O'Sullivan

By David Luces

Described as a man who has devoted his time to the community and his faith, John McNamara was genuinely surprised when he received the news from the Friends of St. Patrick organization that he was chosen to be the grand marshal of the 69th Miller Place-Rocky Point St. Patrick’s Day Parade. 

“I was shocked and pleasantly surprised,” he said.  

McNamara and his wife, Kathy, have lived in Rocky Point since 1978 where they raised four children: Erin, John, Mark and Kathleen, and now the couple has six grandchildren. He has been involved over the years with the St. Louis de Montfort Church in Sound Beach in teaching and ministry. He is also involved in his local parishes, namely St. Anthony of Padua Church in Rocky Point and St. Mark’s Parish in Shoreham where he has been a youth minister since 1979. He also taught at Maria Regina High School in Uniondale. 

Scene from the Miller Place-Rocky Point Friends of St. Patrick’s parade. File Photo by Bob Savage

The Rocky Point resident acknowledged that being named the grand marshal is a great honor, and he is excited to be a part of the parade and for his family to be there as well. 

“When I told my family the news, they were very happy and surprised — just like I was,”
he said. 

McNamara is excited for his grandchildren to be a part of the festivities as they carry banners along the parade route. 

On March 17, McNamara will lead the nearly three-mile march down Route 25A. He said the  parade is a way of thanking the community for all they do. 

Ray O’Sullivan, secretary for the Friends of St. Patrick has known McNamara for most of his life through the St. Louis de Montfort Church. 

“He is a good man — a holy man,” he said. “We came to the decision to name John the grand marshal this year.”

O’Sullivan said McNamara is well-known for serving the community and that generations of people know him through his work in
the churches. 

This year’s Miller Place-Rocky Point Parade will also honor James O’Sullivan, who passed away in January, 2017. He was a former president of Friends of St. Patrick and was a member of the organization for over 60 years.

“Jimmy was a great fellow,” McNamara said. “He was a great guy and a caring man who loved helping the community. His sons are members of the organization and continue to do his work.”

O’Sullivan said that his father was the Grand Marshal of the 1965 parade and held every position in the Friends of St. Patrick’s organization. He would work hours before the parade started to make sure everything was ready to go.

“He gave everything to the organization,” O’Sullivan said. “The parade meant everything to my dad because of his heritage,”

Ray’s father came to the United States from Ireland in the mid 1950s and his uncle John Sullivan started the parade in 1950.

“He is a good man — a holy man.”

— Ray O’Sullivan

“Miller Place and Rocky Point was his adopted home, and he wanted to serve the community,” O’Sullivan said.

The Rocky Point High School Marching Band, the Patriot Brass Ensemble and the Colonial Fife and Drum are just a handful of groups that will be participating in this year’s parade

The Friends of St. Patrick will also host a Luck of the Irish Casino Night, March 8 from 7 to 11 p.m. at The East Wind resort in Wading River. The casino night will serve as the main fundraiser for the parade. The queen and her court for the Rocky Point-Miller Place St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be crowned, and the grand marshal formally introduced at the event as well. There will be a buffet dinner and an open bar. Tickets are $75 per person. For more information on the event visit
www.friendsofstpatrick.org.