March Gladness

March 26, 2025

Mercy Home celebrated Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend while raising funds and awareness that support our mission. Throughout the week before St. Patrick’s Day, we welcomed friends from overseas, paraded through throngs of jubilant revelers, and delighted in Irish food, music, and dance, all while honoring the change that you help make possible in young lives. While the festivities were organized as part of our annual March for Kids campaign, the warm hospitality we extended to all is rooted deeply in our Home’s history and culture.  

The festivities began in a low-key setting when our two dear friends from County Cork in Ireland, Ger Power and Derry Cronin, met with the young people selected to visit Ireland next June. They came to introduce themselves, provide an overview of what our young world travelers can expect, and answer any questions they may have about the trip. This will be the sixth group of Mercy Home youth that the team has hosted in Cork since 2010.   

The next morning, Fr. Scott welcomed a larger contingent of Cork government representatives, including the Cork County Mayor, Cllr. Joe Carroll, to the Home. Chief Operating Officer Joe Wronka and Director of Business Development & Strategic Initiatives Jim Marrese gave the first-time visitors among the group more information about our work with young people. The mayor and our guests then exchanged gifts with Fr. Scott and their hosts here at the Home.  

By March 15, Irish eyes were smiling all over Chicago. Board members, March for Kids sponsors, and other friends of the Home gathered in Grant Park with Fr. Scott at the Mercy Home float before parading down a sunny but windy Columbus Drive in the 70th annual Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade, hosted by Plumbers Local Union 130.  

Our friends helped generate name awareness by handing out Mercy Home branded items like chip clips, carabiners, beads, and bottled hand sanitizer to the crowds that lined both sides of the parade route. Helping to excite the more than 100,000 spectators while drawing more focus to our parade entry were US99 radio personalities Melissa McGurren and Austin Huff. The popular morning show hosts encouraged parade goers to support Mercy Home while a US99 curated playlist filled the spring air with contemporary country music favorites.  

After the parade, guests headed across Grant Park to Venue SIX10 and our annual family friendly Post Parade Party. On the 9th and 10th floors of the Spertus Institute building, where floor-to ceiling windows opened to generous sunshine and sweeping lakefront vistas, guests enjoyed Irish-themed food, kid and adult beverages, arcade and carnival games, music from St. Stephen’s Green, and traditional Irish dance performances by the Hogan Irish Dance Academy and Trinity Academy of Irish Dance. And no St. Patrick’s Day celebration would be complete without the thunderous entrance and march-through from the world-famous Shannon Rovers, whose bags and pipes reverberated throughout the cavernous, multi-level event space.  

Fr. Scott addressed the audience and thanked them for all they do for our Home, while singling out sponsors and our friends from Cork who were in attendance. Proceeds from the party this year will help cover some of the costs of sending our young people to Cork in June.

Like last year, the highlight of the celebration was provided by Kate Flanagan, sister of Mercy Home coworker Molly Riley. With the help of Riley and a few friends, Flannigan, a certified Irish dance teacher, led a traditional Irish céilí dance known as the Walls of Limerick, retrofitted for the occasion to John Ryan’s Polka played by our event musicians in St. Stephen’s Green. Audience participation was the goal, and the infectious energy of the traditional Irish dance brought guests of all ages to the floor. Even the lead singer from St. Stephen’s Green hopped down from the stage to join in as her bandmates continued to play. For a glimpse of our Post Parade Party celebration, check out our photo gallery and this short video.

Our Post Parade Party would not have been possible without our amazing sponsors, coworkers, and volunteers. Special thanks to our volunteers from DePaul College Prep’s National Honor Society, who ran our games section. Thanks to Rich Daniels and the City Lights Orchestra for providing the audio-visual for the event. And thanks to all board members who helped sell tickets and to everyone who attended.

A Sunday snow squall couldn’t dampen spirits on the South Side where our young women rode the Mercy Home float in the South Side Irish Parade. Our girls represented our Home extremely well, taking turns on the mic to rally the crowd, even encouraging competition to see which side of Western Avenue could cheer the loudest.

While so much of the awareness raising about Mercy Home surrounds the parade weekend and the St. Patrick’s Day holiday, the critical fundraising aspect of the March for Kids program runs throughout the entire month of March. The primary donation vehicle is at Mercy Home’s website. Contributions to mercyhome.org from now until March 31 will be matched by a generous donor, making this an especially opportune time to support the Home.   

Aiding the effort are friends in Chicago media. While US99 personalities joined us for the parade, they’ve also been promoting our March for Kids campaign with both pre-recorded PSAs and on-air mentions since the beginning of the month. Similarly, our long-time television partner ABC7 helped reach new audiences with news of our program, airing PSAs featuring weatherman Greg Dutra since March 1, and also welcoming Mercy Home Communications Director Mark Schmeltzer onto their Saturday morning newscast to talk about Mercy Home and how people can help.

Mercy Home’s March for Kids has been held annually under different names, since 1996 when it was known as A Touch O’ Green. For years, it was known as Shamrocks for Kids before being renamed and expanded in 2014. The annual public outreach, awareness, and fundraising effort was rooted in our participation in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and has always leveraged the energy and events occasioned by St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago to raise awareness of work on behalf of kids and families in crisis and support that makes it possible.