Grandits Bandits Centipede - March 19 & 20, 2011

Grandits Bandits Centipede - March 19 & 20, 2011

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 09:21PM
Mike Curry

     The Grandits Bandits Centipede was out in force for St. Patrick’s Day Weekend. The first event was the First Ward St. Pat’s Parade held at the Valley Community Center at noon on Saturday, March 19th. It was a nice March day…in the 40’s, overcast with a light breeze. A large, enthusiastic crowd greeted the ten “peders” with a lot of high-fives. Walking the 2 mile course was a lot of fun. This parade has very few rules, so we brought our own beer to keep us motivated.

     The second event was the Lancaster St. Pat’s Parade held at 4:30PM that same day. The route was about a two mile walk. The “Dalmatian” centipede outfit was used by the Lancaster Strider Running Club. They had about 20 “peders”, flag bearers and helpers. Again it was a nice day to be outside, but the crowd was thin. However, there were a lot of current and former Striders along the route. A very large crowd fit into the Elk’s Club afterwards. The centipede even won a $50 prize for the second best costume. The prize was spent at the Elk’s in quick fashion. As you can imagine there were several pictures of the Dalmatian on a fire truck, chasing a mailman and peeing on a hydrant.

     The third event was the large Buffalo St. Pat’s Parade held at 2PM, Sunday, March 20th. The route was slightly uphill and about 2 miles, but we jogged the entire way. It was a gorgeous day…in the 40’s, sunny and calm. The Buffalo News estimated that there were 100,000 people in attendance. The green centipede was used and we even had a couple of extra helpers run with us. Fortunately we were in the 2^nd Division out of seven. Tons of kids were along the curbs giving us high-fives and we were able to avoid the “over served” partiers. We met at Dubell’s beforehand and went to the Troop I Post afterwards to complete a wonderful weekend.

     Many thanks go to John and Edie Grandits for the centipedes, Patty Hastreiter for putting the lists together, Joe Hastreiter for transporting them, Paul S. and Mike C. for leading and all those who jumped in to help us out.



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