CHICOPEE – The annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade was canceled for the second year in a row due to COVID-19. Despite this, the Chicopee St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee was still determined to celebrate and spread Irish cheer throughout the city. With the help of social media and news sources, their annual shamrock painting skyrocketed and the committee painted over 180 driveways in various Western Massachusetts cities.

The Chicopee St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee is one of the largest contingents of the annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade. They have been involved in the parade for over 60 years and have won awards for several of their floats. Without a parade this year, the committee had many local residents support them through their shamrock painting.

According to Haley Jarvis, president of the Chicopee St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, what started out as one person calling for a shamrock, turned into hundreds. She said this was due to posting on social media and being covered by local news sources.

“It just took off from there. We’ve done over 180 shamrocks between Chicopee, Springfield, Ludlow, East Longmeadow… we painted a couple out in Monson. We had a group of people that went out to Easthampton. So, really, we’ve been everywhere,” she said.

The committee has offered driveway painting for over 10 years, but Jarvis said this is the first year that it had such an overwhelming response.

“Nobody ever really did anything with it and then, this year, social media really just pushed it over the edge,” she said.

A painted shamrock was $40 and, leading up to the week of St. Patrick’s Day, Jarvis said the committee was sending out teams to paint seven days a week.

“We’ve had four teams and that’s really how we’ve gotten them done. We would have gotten probably another 100 more, but we just didn’t have the manpower to get them all done,” she said.

The funds received from the shamrock paintings will go toward paying rent and liability insurance for their parade float when it is stored and to fund scholarships the committee gives out annually.

“All these things do cost money and we’ve gotta get it somewhere. We’re very fortunate that we had a great group of people. I can’t believe how well-received it was. Everyone we went to was happy to see us and we even had people give us extra money and say ‘Put this toward the scholarship!’” said Jarvis.

Jarvis said she was devastated when she found out the parade had been canceled for the second year in a row.

“It’s devastating because as a Parade Committee member you work pretty much all year. This is our time to shine, you know, so it’s too bad. It’s disappointing. Especially for a second year in a row. It was hard enough last year and then this year is like another stab in the heart,” she said.

However, Jarvis said that the committee has already begun thinking of float designs for next year and is looking into other ways to celebrate. The committee hopes to host an event to celebrate the halfway mark to St. Patrick’s Day, which Jarvis said could be a golf tournament or a party at a local venue like the American Legion, Elks Lodge or Knights of Columbus.

“We try to stay active all year long and we want to keep our name out there. We want people to join us and become members and help us out. We want people to know we’re still here,” she said.

To wrap up the annual festivities, the Colleen Court went out and painted a final shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day. Jarvis said if someone did still want a painting after the holiday, they could contact the committee.

“If someone wanted a shamrock, they could reach out to us and we’ll paint it,” she said.

Jarvis said the committee is always looking for new members and those interested are encouraged to visit their website at https://chicopeespc.com/.

“We encourage new members. New members are a great way to get ideas. New people bring new things to the table,” she said.