March 16, 2015 at 4:52 p.m.
Hodags and leprechauns: Scores of floats travel Brown Street in annual St. Patrick's parade
Hodags and leprechauns: Scores of floats travel Brown Street in annual St. Patrick's parade
Families and friends gathered to enjoy between 60 and 70 floats before heading inside for the annual bar crawl, which runs until the evening of St. Patrick's Day.
Not a sad face could be found amongst the sea of smiles as the city came together to be Irish for a day.
"Everybody's Irish today," Jan Hagen said. "It's just a great day to get together and enjoy each other."
That was a sentiment shared by many. The fact that people were able to get outside after a long winter helped, too.
"Man, we really needed this," Jake Steiner said. "We've been couped up too long. It's nice to be able to get outside, enjoy a parade, have some drinks with friends - just be able to live life again. It was cold this year, so to be able to get out and enjoy the sun again, man, you can't beat that."
Now in its fourth year, the parade has quickly become tradition for many.
"We've come to each one since the beginning," Jaime Lancaster said.
"It was beautiful that first year, then it got colder the last couple, but this year's pretty nice. Really, it doesn't matter what it's like outside, we just enjoy coming. The kids love it, we love it, my parents love it - it's just a great time to get out with the family and do something fun."
The brain child of Jack Winkler and a couple of his buddies, the parade is quickly becoming a must-see event in downtown Rhinelander.
"I'm so happy we have a St. Patty's parade now, I think it's definitely something we've been missing. We have so many great parades during the summer, and I think this is a great way to kick it all off," Sandra Miller said.
"The more we can do together as a community, the better off we all area. I'm so thankful for the guys that put this together. They do a great job every year. Here's to many, many more."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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