For the first time, the Village of Farmingdale on Sunday, March 17, will be holding a St. Patrick’s Day parade in what is to become an annual event.
Organizers are hoping that the parade will give Farmingdale residents a chance to come together and share a special event, and are also hoping that the parade will bring customers to Main Street and help support the businesses located there.
“The biggest thing about it is getting the community together,” said Farmingdale Fire Commissioner Skip Schumeyer, who will also be one of the parade’s grand marshals along with Mayor Ralph Ekstrand. “The mayor asked me about it and if it gets the community together and gets the residents downtown, I’m all for it.”
Parade marchers will assemble at North Side Elementary School on at 12:30 p.m. At 1 p.m., the parade will kick off, heading south on Main Street towards Village Hall. A closing ceremony will be held at 2:15 p.m. at the Farmingdale Fire Department and family events will follow at Village Green at 2:30 p.m.
Representative Peter King, State Sen. Kemp Hannon and Nassau County Legis. Joe Belesi, have said they will be attending, according to parade organizers, and other elected officials are expected.
Beginning at 3 p.m., an activity called Lepra-con Crawl will be held on downtown Main Street, beginning at The Nutty Irishman. It continues through the Library Cafe, Croxley Ales, The Republic Pub, the Wild West Saloon, CaraCara Mexican Grill, Paradox Cafe, and the Last Call. After 5 p.m., there will be dinner specials along the Main Street. Chuck Gosline, who is co-chairman of Farmingdale’s Downtown Master Plan Committee, said that in speaking about summer activities, ideas for other seasons of the year were brought up and the idea of a St. Patrick’s Day was suggested. He further added that merchants have contributed funds and that businesspeople are working together to make this a success for both the community and Farmingdale’s downtown businesses.
“We want to all just work together,” commented Gosline,
“We want to bring people to Farmingdale,” added Schumeyer.
Ekstrand, also a Farmingdale businessman, is excited about the parade, and not just because he is one of the grand marshals. Ekstrand is also excited about the possibility of bringing business to Farmingdale as has been done by other St. Patrick’s Day parades on Long Island.
“Look at what the St. Patrick’s Day parade has done for Bay Shore and Bethpage,” said the mayor. “It helps generate consumer spending to the downtown merchants. We want to increase consumer spending and parades tend to do that.”
