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Community Corner

The Whole Town'll Be a Wee Bit Irish Sunday

Shaved heads, free corned beef, a bike rodeo and bagpipers are just a few of the highlights of the annual Hometown Irish Parade.

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling.

From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.

Well, from street to street, and downtown anyway.

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Bagpipers, Irish dancers and revelers soon will be calling Plainfield residents to the streets for the annual St. Patrick’s celebration, complete with a parade, kids bike rodeo, family area, pub crawl and, of course, a corned beef-and-cabbage feast.

Plainfield’s Hometown Irish Parade will step off at 1 p.m. Sunday from the northwest parking lot of and wind through neighborhoods west of Route 59.

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The parade will end at the , where a post-parade party will include a family area with inflatable bounce houses and, as in past years, a free corned beef-and-cabbage meal (while supplies last) at , 15120 S. Des Plaines St.

The newly opened is the chief sponsor of this year’s parade, which is coordinated by the Village Preservation Association and MainStreet Plainfield.

The ninth annual parade will feature Irish dancers, two bagpipes ensembles, floats and community groups. It will be preceded by a kids’ bike rodeo and decorating contest.

“The parade lasts about an hour and brings a lot of people downtown,” said Debbie Olson, parade co-chairman and president of the Village Preservation Association.

She and fellow neighbors in downtown Plainfield started the tradition with one float, noisemakers and a small party.

“We just went around the block,” Olson said. “Next year it got a little bigger. Each year we added more and more.”

“I was used to going to the South Side Irish Parade, but not after moving to Plainfield ... it wasn’t a place to take kids,” said former Chicagoan Tom Ruane, parade marshal and co-chairman. “In Plainfield we decided to do our own and make it kid friendly.”

In addition to the bike rodeo, a family area at the Village Green will have three bounce houses and IndyCar racer Dale Coyne’s race car on display. The expanded family area is sponsored by the Plainfield Soccer Association, The Pet’s Home and Cedarlake Village.

Desserts made by residents will be offered at the nearby Front Street Cantina.

“You take a cookie and go play in the play area,” said Ruane, a father of three and member of the Village Preservation Association. “It’s fun. We want people to linger and see what’s downtown and hopefully participate in the parade or something next year.”

The parade and related festivities represent the Village Preservation Association’s mission to promote the downtown area.

“We want to maintain that hometown feel,” he said, “and that’s why we call it the Hometown Irish Parade.”

Kids’ Bike Rodeo

Before the parade, kids 15 and younger are invited to enter the bike rodeo by decorating their bicycles Irish style and gathering near the parade staging area in the northwest parking lot of Plainfield Central High School, located 1oo feet north of Commercial Street and River Road.

Judging will begin at noon and prizes will be awarded for participation and top decorations.

“The kids decorate their bikes, ride through a makeshift course, get prizes and then get to ride their bikes in the parade,” Ruane said.

If kids are too young to pedal through the parade, they can put their bikes on a truck and ride the bike rodeo float.

The bike rodeo drew about 30 kids last year, Ruane said, and he hopes for 50 participants this year, when it is sponsored by Sumbaum Cycle in Joliet.

St. Baldrick’s Event Tent

Located on Des Plaines Street north of Lockport Street and sponsored by , the tent will have auction items and will host the traditional shaving of heads for the charity fighting children’s cancer.

The tent also will have Irish fare, beer, bagpipers and dancers.

Pub Crawl:

In addition to the corned beef and cabbage feast, following the parade is a pub crawl with food and drink specials, cash raffles and prizes at numerous downtown Plainfield establishments.

“The pub crawl is a lot of fun and we meet new people and find volunteers for next year,” Olson said. “The bagpipers will be at Front Street Cantina and some other places, too.”

Partygoers are welcome to join the fun at any location, any time.

But for a chance at the 50/50 cash raffle and restaurant gift certificate giveaways at each location, the official pub crawl route will begin at 3 p.m. at Bin 48 and proceed to , , Front Street Cantina, and finally .

The pub crawl will end around 8 p.m. with a grand prize drawing of four White Sox tickets.

Street Closures:

The ’s traffic alert encourages non-parade goers and motorists to avoid the downtown area and a portion of Route 126 from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Sunday.

At 12:30 p.m., police will begin closing the following roadways:

James Street from Fort Beggs Drive to Lockport Street;

Lockport Street from Main Street (Route 126) to Lockport Street;

Illinois Street from Lockport Street to Commercial Street;

Ottawa Street from Illinois Street to James Street;

Chicago Street from Des Plaines Street to Fox River Street;

and Des Plaines Street from Lockport Street to Ottawa Street.

All streets will reopen once the parade has cleared the area. Des Plaines Street between Lockport and Chicago streets, however, will remain closed until approximately 6 p.m. for post-parade festivities.

Additionally, Des Plaines Street between Oak Avenue and Lockport Street will be closed from mid-day Friday, March 11, to early morning Monday, March 14, due to St. Patrick’s Day activities at Finnegan’s Irish Pub.

For more details, call at 815-436-5510 or visit http://www.plainfieldirishparade.com.

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