St. Paddy's 5K gets celebration off and running

By Susan Dibble

Fans of Naperville's St. Patrick's Day Parade can get off to a running start this year.

Before the parade steps off, the Rotary Club of Naperville Sunrise will hold its first St. Paddy's Day 5K run/walk at 8 a.m. Saturday, March 12. The race will start and end at Jackson Avenue and West Street in Naperville's downtown in time for the parade to begin at 10 a.m.

Race director Joe Lichter said the Rotary Club wanted to hold a new event and has members who are avid runners. The club set a goal of registering 1,000 participants.

“We're actually at over a 1,000 runners already,” Lichter said. “The community is very supportive of this.”

Entry costs $30 for online registration at StPaddysDay5K.org, $35 for walk-in registration at the Naperville Running Company March 10-11, and $40 for race-day registration from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. at the Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center, 305 W. Jackson Ave., Naperville.

Proceeds from the race will go to support the DuPage Senior Citizens Council's Meals on Wheels program.

“This fits right into the health part of our humanitarian service,” Lichter said. “With all the emphasis on health and fitness, this really plays will.”

New and used athletic shoes also will be collected to give to student athletes in the Chicago area.

A post-race party for participants will be from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the Rubin Center, with food, drink and green beer served.

The race course will be cleared in plenty of time for the 10 a.m. parade start at Naperville North High School, 899 N. Mill St., Lichter said. The St. Patrick's Day Parade, sponsored annually by the West Suburban Irish, proceeds south on Mill Street, east on Jefferson Avenue, south on Main Street and west on Water Street to end at city hall.

Parade Chairman Chuck Corrigan said he anticipates about 100 units this year from bagpipers and Irish dancers to Star War characters, Shriners, service clubs and Girl Scouts.

“There's something for everybody,” he said.

Parade Grand Marshal Sister Jeanne Haley, administrator of St. Patrick's Residence in Naperville, will have the Nuns on the Runs champion bed racers in the parade. St. Patrick himself will be there, along with Parade Queen Hayley Gillespie, a student from West Chicago Community High School.

Last year, several thousand people turned out for the parade despite its rainy start.

“Given good weather, we could have 6,000 to 7,000, even more,” Corrigan said.

Two days before the parade, an Irish Mass will be celebrated at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 1500 Brookdale Road, Naperville. The prelude starts at 6:30 p.m., with the Mass at 7 p.m., followed by tea and soda bread, and a performance by the Trinity Irish Dancers.

If you go

Ÿ Irish Mass starts with prelude at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 1500 Brookdale Road, Naperville

Ÿ St. Paddy's Day 5K at 8 a.m. Saturday, March 12, Jackson Avenue and West Street, Naperville. StPaddysDay5K.org

Ÿ St. Patrick's Day Parade steps off at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 12, at Naperville North High School, 899 Mill St., Naperville. wsirish.org