WAPPINGERS FALLS – Everyone
in Wappingers Falls was Irish for the day as the village hosted the 22nd
annual Dutchess County St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Despite the bitter cold, spectators lined the sidewalks as participants
marched down Main Street.
Proud to be Irish
Irish step-dancers
Peggy Bedrossian, the service unit manager for the City of Poughkeepsie
Girl Scouts, accompanied her young, candy-slinging girls throughout the
village.
Bedrossian said she was surprised to see the giant turnout, despite the
weather, and that fact manifests the true purpose of the celebration from
a local standpoint.
Wearin’ of the green
“It’s just fun to be here and see the people who come out
to enjoy seeing everybody. Whether it’s the Girl Scouts, the Boy
Scouts, the bagpipes – which I love to hear, all of that. It’s
just good to be here,” she said.
Each year, a member of the community who has gone above and beyond, in
an effort to benefit their local community is chosen as Grand Master of
the Parade.
In 2017, Aileen MacDonald Sassmann was selected.
“I’ve done a lot of volunteering for the village, for the
library, I helped form the Wappinger Watershed Inter-municipal Council,
I graduated from Mt. St. Mary Academy and High School and I’m funding
a scholarship there,” she said. “I feel blessed in my life
before this, but I feel that I’m in a downpour of blessings,”
she said.
“What’s important is that we’re all out here. We’ve
all been in the house and we’re looking for something uplifting,
and this is it,” she said. “It’s cold, but people are
out; they’re covered in blankets. They’re smiling.”
