by Vicki Brown

Created on: March 18, 2009

I live in Vermont. Vermont is a small state in many ways. The population of the state is about 600,000. We have one area code and one member of the House of Representatives. Vermont is mostly rural with the landscape dotted with small towns. Vermont is best known for Maple Syrup, Fall foliage, and Winter sports.

Our St. Patrick's Day parade is by no means famous beyond our state border. But, it is worth noting. We have a construction company called S.D. Ireland Construction Company. Year round they have shamrocks on their concrete mixers. At Christmas they cover the barrel of the trucks with lights.

But it's St. Patrick's Day that means the most to them and to the residents of Burlington Vermont's largest city. The heart of downtown Burlington is Church Street a pedestrian mall with stores and restaurants, lots of people and dogs.The weather was nice and the crowds were out and wearing green. The parade begins at 3:00 so kids can be there to see the trucks.

On St. Patrick's Day, the trucks and concrete mixers line up for the annual parade through the Church Street Marketplace. This parade has been held every year for twenty years. It's a simple parade. No floats, no bands, no local politicians, or celebrities just a line of trucks and concrete mixers with a big green Shamrock on the side of the white trucks.

It's a tradition and Vermonters are very traditional and honor traditions of all kinds. The parade was a bit different this year. It had a new name - Ride for the Cure. The S.D. Ireland Cancer Research Fund teamed up with the company to make the parade more meaningful. The shamrocks sport a pink ribbon to show their support for breast cancer research. As a breast cancer survivor who was treated at the Breast Care Center at the University of Vermont's Fletcher Allen Health Care medical center and half Irish, I've never been so excited about a row of cement mixers.

Local organizations pay to have their logo on the mixers and that money goes to fund research at the University of Vermont. There are many opportunities to give on the Internet or directly to the SD Ireland Cancer Research Fund.This year the Ride for the Cure collected $100,000. In this economy and in a poor state, that's a lot for one day.

People crowd Church Street to watch the parade of concrete mixers and celebrate St. Patrick's Day. This year the temperature was 55 degrees and sunny. A perfect day for a parade. Last year it was 13 degrees and the year before that there was two feet of snow on the ground. One never knows what to expect this time of the year in Vermont.

We are sure of one thing. On March 17 the SD Ireland mixers will line up and show their Irish pride no matter what country their ancestors came from. On St. Patrick's Day, everyone's Irish.

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