35th St. Patrick's Day Parade In City Saturday

March 10, 2006
By MELISSA PIONZIO, Courant Staff Writer

For more than 25 years, Sister Maureen Faenza and Sister Theresa Foni have worked to relieve hunger among the city's homeless, unemployed and working poor at the House of Bread, a soup kitchen in the city's North End neighborhood.

In recognition of their efforts, the women, who belong to the order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, have been named Persons of the Year by the Central Connecticut Celtic Cultural Committee. The award is presented by the committee in conjunction with the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade, which will be held in Hartford Saturday.

It is the parade's 35th year in Hartford.

"I always go to the parade as a viewer. This year will be quite different going as a participant," said Foni, who plans to march with Faenza. "Being 100 percent Italian, I become 100 percent Irish on the day of the event. It should be a lot of fun."

Representatives from 12 towns will participate: Hartford, Wethersfield, East Hartford, South Windsor, Rocky Hill, Glastonbury, Windsor, Manchester, Suffield, Newington, West Hartford and Enfield. Bands from eight high schools and five middle schools will march with traditional bag pipe groups and pub bands.

Since school bands are such a big part of the event, the parade committee will hand out awards to three of this year's participating bands, said parade chairman Jim Moriarty of Rocky Hill.

"We are doing a kind of battle of the bands," said Moriarty, who is employed as a school administrator. "There is always a need for instrument replacement and repair, so there is a need for money to be returned for those types of things. ... It is nice to see the interest of school bands and the effort that is put into getting a group together and getting them out there to perform on the street."

As in previous years, a St. Patrick's Day Parade Mass will be held today at 7 p.m. at St. Peter's Church on Main Street, during which Foni and Faenza and parade marshal Stanley Tuller of East Hartford will be honored.

Tuller, a longtime supporter of the parade and the Irish American Home Society in Glastonbury, will be given his shillelagh, or Irish walking stick, to carry during the parade. A traditional blessing of the shamrocks and the prayers for good weather will also be given.

"I've cooked corned beef down there for years, done the dinner club since its inception ... it's a great place. I've met a lot of real nice people," Tuller said of the Irish Home. "You think of all the people that are members of the Irish club in the last 30 years and I'm one of 35 [grand marshals]. It shows that they appreciate what you do for them."

The parade starts at 11 a.m. at Capitol Avenue by the state Capitol. From there, marchers will head east on Capitol, left on Main Street and left on Asylum Street. The parade then turns left again onto Ford Street, and will end by the Memorial Arch.

The streets on the parade route will begin to shut down around 10 a.m. Other planned closings include the Whitehead Highway at the Prospect Street exit beginning at 10:30 a.m.; I-84 East at the Capitol Avenue exit beginning at 9 a.m.; the staging area for the parade will be closed by 9 a.m. and includes Capitol Avenue from Broad to Hudson streets; all of Trinity Street; all of Elm Street; Washington Street from Capitol Avenue to Park Street; Oak Street; and Hungerford Street.