Thousands of Yonkers’ locals, young and old, braved the cold on Saturday afternoon to make their way to the second annual McLean Avenue St. Patrick's Day parade which took place along the famous Emerald Mile.
Organizers say more than 20,000 spectators lined the streets to view the avenue's parade, starting at Bronx River Road and heading west all the way to Coyne Park.
Yonkers mayor, Mike Spano, got celebrations underway earlier during the week after painting a green line on the street to mark the parade route.
The aim of the parade is for the Irish to celebrate their home in Yonkers, and to enjoy the Irish culture, music and dance that this welcoming community has to offer. Adding to that is to boost turnout at local businesses in the area. That was a true success as local stores, bars and restaurants were a buzz all day long on Saturday through to the early hours of Sunday morning.
Every place along the avenue was well prepared for the day in question, having extra staff on hand, offering special menus at restaurants and beer specials in the bars. The bars were not shy of having live music throughout the evening for the locals to relax inside away from the cold after the parade.
McLean avenue was a delirium of Irish flags, shamrocks and green as locals gathered on Saturday afternoon in their Aran jumpers and wooly hats to watched the parade that kick started at 1pm.
With Irish musician and Yonkers resident, Joanie Madden taking her place as Grand Marshall of the event, from start to finish the parade lasted approximately one hour, jam-packed full of pipe bands, bagpipes, Yonkers firemen and cops, talent from the local schools, beautiful displays of Irish dancing from a number of dance schools in the area, representatives from all the countries of Ireland and advertisements from local businesses and organizations.
Vendors were busy selling stalls full of everything Irish- hats, flags, scarves and balloons and face painters were on duty at various locations to keep the children amused. There was any amount of "Meet me on McLean" shirts to be seen around the area as they were on sale in the last few weeks.
After the parade being a roaring success last year for its first time, this year's parade was equally just as outstanding even though the weather wasn't quite like last years 78 degrees, the sun was still shining and everyone of all ages who celebrated and participated in the parade enjoyed their day on McLean avenue.
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