After Holyoke’s St. Patrick’s Road Race on Saturday, March 22, the West Springfield Parade Committee made their way to the Young Building at the Eastern States Exposition (ESE) complex for the reveal of the West Springfield Colleens’ parade float, which took home “Best Colleen Float” the following day at Holyoke’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Father Michael Twohig, of Holyoke, Mass., presided over the Mass service and blessed the float. The West Springfield Colleen, Ainsley Elizabeth Kearney, and her court—Piper Elizabeth Bajor, Mary Catherine Desrosiers and Keira Fitzgerald Haley—were in attendance, accompanied by their families, representatives from West Springfield’s City Hall and the town’s St. Patrick’s Parade Committee.
“I think it’s very spiritual and inspirational that we do this,” shared Chris Thompson, president of the St. Patrick’s Committee of West Springfield. “This year, we honored two past marshals who have passed away in the last year: Ned Bowler, and Jim Conlin, who was one of the founding members of our parade committee.”
The massive float is a feat of engineering, assembled over the course of 500 cumulative hours given by diligent float committee and numerous volunteers, including ESE’s own Steve Ferraro, director of Operations. An enormous rainbow constructed from pool noodles wraps around the float’s rear, while a larger-than-life mechanical leprechaun with a functional, smoking pipe, waves at onlookers. Kearney and her court were seated on stools secured to a bed of bright green turf.
The design was dreamed up by Keagan Kennedy and Viktoria Horonda, two students from West Springfield Middle School’s eighth grade class. Thompson ensured that Superintendent of Schools, Stefania Raschilla, and Diana Coyne of the West Springfield School Committee were present for the blessing.
“I wanted to show them the talent of their students, and what the students mean to us, as the parade committee,” Thompson explained. “The support of Eastern States Exposition also means a lot to us—we couldn’t do what we do without ESE’s help, and we hope to apply our float for The Big E’s Big Parade.”
The following morning, just before Holyoke’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, all the Western Mass. floats assembled at Holyoke Community Charter School to be assessed by a panel of judges. West Springfield’s lucky leprechaun was recognized with the Daniel E. Tierney Memorial Award for “Best Colleen Float,” and Bajor proudly held the girls’ trophy over her head as the colleen and her court made their way through the parade route, bundled in blankets on a sunny but windy Sunday.