Bicycles dressed to kill and a car hand-crafted almost entirely of wood will join marching bands, local dignitaries, vintage cars, pipers, mounted police and youthful step dancers at Hermosa’s 2011 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, beginning 11 a.m. Saturday, March 12.
The 16th annual parade – the event is 17 years old but was rained out one year – was shouldered by the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce, after the city took it over from exhausted volunteer founders and then passed it along, citing budget constraints.
“We’re trying to make this seamless for the residents,” said parade chair Kim MacMullan.
The popular event draws several thousand people to line the parade route, which begins at Pier Avenue and the greenbelt, and proceeds down Pier to Hermosa Avenue, where it hangs a left and disappears into an emerald mist about Eighth Street. This year, live bands and steppers from the Kelly School of Dance will continue to entertain on the Pier Plaza for a few hours after the parade.
For the first time the parade will travel down the refurbished Pier Avenue, complete with wider sidewalks and a median lined with date palms. Maureen Hunt, acting executive director of the chamber, said the parade will use the north side of Pier where the median breaks it in two, and she urged spectators on the south side to avoid standing on the median, where the ground cover is tender.
In addition to a large bicycle entry organized by Hermosa Cyclery and the wooden car crafted and driven by Kelsey Clark, highlight entries will include three marching bands, the LAPD Emerald Society, the hospital-visiting Clowns on Rounds, HBPD mounted police, Aquarium of the Pacific, horse riders from the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and the pooches of the Irish Setter Club.
The roughly 100-pound wooden car can go 25 mph on its electric scooter motor, and was carved and shaped by Clark, 27, entirely of wood save its axles, steering mechanism, engine and tires.
The car was six years in the making and has been recognized at a number of car shows. Its accessories include a little trailer to tow, a drive-in tray with burger, fries and a shake with two straws, a barbeque grill, a surfboard and a skateboard entirely of wood.
For more on the parade see www.stpatricksday.org. ER
