Erin Larkin, this year’s South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade queen, had a chance to speak at her grade school alma mater, St. Christina.
She spent nine years at the school, including kindergarten, and participated in a host of activities including cheerleading, sports and choir.
“It’s a great school and this week I got to go back and talk to the student body, which was super-duper cool,” Larkin said. “It was cool to see the choir and they sounded phenomenal. They are still alive and well.”
St. Christina, celebrating its 100th anniversary, was the parade’s honoree. Officials said 80% of the 487 students attending the school have parents who are first responders.
Numbers at the 48th running of the parade appeared down because of a heavy rainstorm an hour before the step off. Interestingly, the sun came out at noon when the Chicago Stockyard Kilty Band stepped off, but 37 minutes later the rain returned.
The reigning queen was ready for the rain.
“I have my rain boots on,” Larkin said.
She said what she remembered the most about St. Christina was the long-lasting friendships.
“I’m still best friends with my best friend from kindergarten — Catherine McMullin,” Larkin said. “I’m going to be a maid of honor at her wedding in September.”
The grand marshal for the 113-entrant parade was Tunnel to Towers, which helps fallen and injured officers and their families.
It was launched after the 9/11 attacks in honor of New York Fire Department’s Stephen Siller. Siller died on 9/11 after racing through a tunnel to get to the Twin Towers. He reached the South Tower and it collapsed. His body was never recovered.
Aric Grooms, Tunnel to Towers senior management of development, said Siller’s family came up with a plan in Siller’s name to help first responders across the country.
The foundation offers mortgage-free homes for families and smart homes for catastrophically injured first responders and veterans.
Danny Golden, a Chicago police officer who was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in 2022, received a home courtesy of the group.
“I got it in October,” the Mount Greenwood native said. “When I woke up in the hospital after I got shot, my mom said ,‘they are building you a house.’’’
The house is near Rate Field and Golden is appreciative of Tunnels to Towers for providing it.
“The house is awesome,” Golden said. “They have everything you can think of for my situation. Everything they did was top notch.”
New Lenox Army veteran Brian Wilhelm is scheduled to have his house remodeled by the foundation. He lost his right leg in Iraq in 2003.
It took him awhile to warm up to the idea of accepting help.
“Other organizations wanted to do something like this for me and I let my own pride get in the way,” he said. “I didn’t want to take what feels like a handout.
“Finally, a year and a half ago, I was talking to one of my friends about it and the problem is that I love my house and I don’t want another house. I want my house. I reached out and they have been absolutely amazing.”
Since retiring from the Army in 2006, Wilhelm has been a Paralympic athlete, studied computer science at Lewis University and founded Brian Wilhelm Consulting.
He said he never felt sorry for himself and used a magazine story on his injury as motivation.
“I was back in the states, and I was in the hospital reading the Guardian and the second paragraph said that my life was over as I knew it and that my life was destroyed and ruined,” he said.
“I made a vow that I would go headlong kicking and screaming ever since.”
As for the parade, the 10th entry could have been a parade of its own.
It was dedicated to area high school athletic state champions. Marists girls and boys volleyball teams, Mount Carmel and Brother Rice’s football teams and St. Laurence baseball teams were invited to march.
Marist’s boys basketball team, which won the Illinois High School Association Class 4A title less than 24 hours before the parade, with a stunning 44-28 win over defending state champion Benet, couldn’t make it because it was still in Champaign.
During the pre-parade rain showers, for awhile, Chicago Ridge’s Dan Crooks and his friends Amanda and Adelaide Lock were the only three spectators near the 103rd Street and Western Avenue intersection, which is the busy starting point.
They arrived 2 ½ hours before the parade and had hats, gloves and blankets.
“We came prepared – we’ve been pretty much coming our whole lives,” Amanda said. “We missed a couple of years but we love it.”
Adelaide Lock, who turned 8 Friday, was looking forward to many of the parade’s offerings.
“I like the floats and doggies (Irish wolf hounds), the police and the Ghostbusters,” she said.
Crooks has seen it all weather-wise for this parade.
“It snowed a few years ago,” he said. “And one time about 20 years ago, I almost got heat stroke. It’s a wild swing in the weather. It’s Chicago.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
