A crowd dressed in varying shades of green crowded into Aggieville on Saturday to celebrate the Saint Patrick’s day holiday with the 35th annual parade presented by the Aggieville business association. Evan Tuttle, the Executive Director for the association says that there were over sixty participants in this year’s parade, with organizations such as the Manhattan Shriners taking part, as well as various children waving ribbons and riding scooters. Tuttle also stated that since it was an election year, there were quite a few political candidates in the parade as well.
The Grand Marshall for the parade was former Kansas State and Kansas City Chief football player Jon McGraw, who shared the duty of Grand Marshall with his family. McGraw expressed happiness at returning to Manhattan saying that the people of the Manhattan community, as well as K-state “are tremendous people as well as tremendous fans, and have been a great support to me over the years”.
The McGraws waved to the cheering crowd from a horse drawn carriage.
The parade route started at city park on 12th and Fremont, and headed north into Aggieville on 12th. It then made a right on Laramie heading east then made a left on 11th going north before taking a left on Moro heading west towards Varneys, where each participant was announced as they passed by.
