Baltimore St. Patrick Parade welcomes the Special Olympics and Michael McCrary

The Baltimore Saint Patrick Parade welcomes the paricipation of the Maryland Special Olympics and their long time supporter to the 46th annual parade scheduled for March 17, 2002

St. Patrick Parade welcomes the Special Olympics and Michael McCrary

January 15, 2002

Baltimore, MD: St. Patrick Celebrations, Inc, the producers of Baltimores annual Saint Patrick Parade, scheduled for March 17, 2002, announced today that the Maryland Special Olympics will be participating in the parade by including a float and bringing with them Baltimore Raven Michael McCrary (a long time supporter of the Special Olympics in Maryland).

The parade chairman, David Keelan, said The Irish Community believes that the parade, as a community event, has the responsibility to represent not only the Irish American contributions to Maryland, but the contributions all members of the community are making to our lives today."

The St. Patrick Parade draws up to 200,000 spectators. We are happy to enable the Special Olympics to promote awareness of their goals, mission, and achievements of their athletes through their participation in this major annual event." said Keelan

In addition to the Special Olympics many other community organizations, such as The Humane Society, The Maryland School for the Blind, and others are also participating in the parade:

Given the enormous amount of coordination the application cut off date is January 30, 2002.

Marketing Chairman, Kevin Urick, said, We encourage all interested parties to submit their applications as soon as possible so that we have enough time to consider them for participation. Applications are available on our web site www.stpatrickdayparade.com.

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About the Parade

12 member Irish Community groups organize the parade. The parade is fully funded through the efforts of the volunteer parade committee. The 2001 parade operating expenses were over $92,000.00, yet the parade is free to all spectators. The parade is also proceeded by the ODouls Shamrock 5K race -- the second largest 5k in Maryland