Sioux Falls St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Grand Marshal announced

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The Sioux Falls St. Patrick’s Day Extravaganza Committee announced Wednesday that Dick Sweetman will be the Grand Marshal of the 2023 Sioux Falls St. Patrick’s Day parade, taking place on Saturday, March 18.
He will also be the first of the 42 grand marshals of the parade who is an actual citizen of Ireland.
According to a statement from the committee, “Sweetman was head of Sweetman Construction Co from 1959 to 1996, Terin Construction Co. from 1996 to 2009, founded the Ellis and Eastern Railroad, and was part of the leadership of Ramkota Companies and Kelly Inns. He’s still president of Spencer Quarries near Spencer, SD. And later this year, the state’s first planetarium, a state-of-the-art gift from Dick and Kathy Sweetman, will open in the Washington Pavilion.”
A Sioux Falls native with deep ancestral ties to Ireland, Sweetman became and Irish citizen in 2001, under a program that granted dual citizenship to people whose grandparents were born in Ireland. His grandfather came to America in the latter part of the 1800s to mange “The Sweetman Irish Colony” in Minnesota about 85 miles east of Sioux Falls.
Sweetman and his wife Kathy were married in 1973 and have three children and six grandchildren. Saint Patrick’s day has always been a favorite holiday for Sweetman. “It seems that everyone can claim at least a little Irish blood in their veins, which is ample excuse to hoist a pint or two”, Sweetman says. “It is also a joyful break in the middle of the dreary winter, and we thank the good saint for it.”
This year, the parade will fall on the Saturday after Saint Patrick’s Day, March 18. The traditional painting of the shamrock will take place at 11 a.m. in front of Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Gifts, 219 S. Phillips Avenue. The event will be public and Phillips Avenue will be closed at 10:45 a.m. between 10th and 11th Streets. The parade takes off from Phillips Avenue and 13th Street at 2 p.m. and ends around 5th Street. Streets adjacent to the route are closed at 1:30 p.m. and parking is not allowed on Phillips Avenue starting late Saturday morning. The parade will begin staging at 12:30 p.m. on Main and Dakota Avenues between 11th and 13th Streets.
Registration, which closes March 12, is available at SiouxFallsEvents.Com. Buttons are available in advance at the Chamber of Commerce office, 200 N. Phillips Ave., and numerous businesses throughout the community. They can also be purchased the day of the parade.
Core sponsors of the parade are Avera Health, Holiday Inn City Centre, Sanford Health, Xcel Energy, and a variety of downtown businesses.
The “Vanguard Squadron,” an ethanol-powered airplane stunt team, will perform at the start of the parade, weather permitting. The falls of the Big Sioux River and The Arc of Dreams sculpture over the river will be lit green on St. Patrick’s Day and the next day.
Though not officially part of the Extravaganza Committee’s efforts, the Lucky 7s one mile, five mile and 5K runs will be held on parade day. The one-mile race starts at 1 p.m. at Remedy Brewing Co.
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