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.
The parade included the usual step dancers …
… and people with green hair
Peggy Bedrossian, the service unit manager for the City of Poughkeepsie Girl Scouts, accompanied her young, candy-slinging girls throughout the village. She 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.
“It’s just fun to be here and see the people who come out to enjoy seeing everybody,” Bedrossian said. “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.”
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 Intermunicipal Council, I graduated from Mt. St. Mary Academy and High School and I’m funding a scholarship there,” Sassmann said. “I feel blessed in my life before this, but I feel that I’m in a downpour of blessings. 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. It’s cold, but people are out; they’re covered in blankets. They’re smiling.”
