As Chuck Bartz rolled down Massachusetts Street on Wednesday wearing a white beard, waving a scepter and shouting “Happy St. Patrick’s Day,” he had more than just a holiday to celebrate.

“This is a celebration for me,” he said. “That’s why I’m St. Patrick.”

Bartz, 21, of Lawrence, learned in December that the cancer in his body had gone into remission after six months of chemotherapy. On Wednesday, his family’s entry into the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade — the Curtiss family’s “Root Beer Float” — was in his honor.

The float, which Bartz’s Irish extended family has entered in the parade the past three years, had root beer on tap and a string band made up of people including Pat Curtiss and Martha Coffman, of Lawrence. But Bartz was clearly the main attraction. A sign on the float read: “Dedicated to Chuck, our hero.”

The hourlong parade down Lawrence’s main drag and across the Kansas River Bridge into North Lawrence featured nearly 80 entries, including horses, a giant floating burrito, and a 15-piece bagpipe band. The parade, organized by a committee of about 50 people who begin work in the fall, has been a tradition in Lawrence since 1988.

“I just love the positive attitude everybody has out here — just people yelling and having a great time,” said Ashley Crafton, 14, a West Junior High School student who was standing on the river bridge watching floats pass. She said she was about 85 percent Irish.

In the 300 block of Locust Street, the parade passed the front yard of Yolanda Franklin, who said she had unsuccessfully tried to charge admission to the yard to her sister Catina — a higher price the closer the spot was to the curb.

Franklin said she appreciated the fact that, unlike any other parades she could think of, this one included North Lawrence.

“I like the horses,” she said. “I really like the men in skirts.”

Revelers pack downtown for Lawrence's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Wednesday's event featured nearly 80 entries, including a 15-piece bagpipe band.

“Especially when the wind’s blowing,” Catina Franklin added.

One of the men in kilts was Bill Oliver, a half-Scottish, half-Irish respiratory technician who lives in Lawrence. He carried an Irish flag and wore a kilt with the plaid pattern of his family’s clan — Fraser — as he marched at the head of a bagpipe band.

He’d been itching for the opportunity to show off his traditional clothing.

“You can’t just walk around normally in a kilt without getting a lot of remarks,” he said. “But today, you can get away with it.”

Mike Lohmann, a member of the organizing committee, said the parade went as well as any others he could recall.

“The attendance was great, and a lot of kids got out of school early and were able to see it,” he said.

A U.S. Navy recruiting van blared the 1980s Kenny Loggins hit song “Danger Zone” as it rolled down the route. As the parade passed, a man stood by the side of Massachusetts Street with a fiddle under his chin, playing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” One woman wore a green T-shirt that read, “Kiss me, I’m vegan.”

Kindergartners in construction-paper hats from St. John's Catholic School line Massachusetts Street in anticipation of the festivities.

As the head of the parade approached 8-year-old Mason Robinson, of Lawrence, who was waiting in the 600 block of Massachusetts Street, he had a two-word answer for what he expected to be the best part of the parade: “The candy.”

Across the street, on the bulging front porch of Free State Brewing Co., older parade-goers seemed equally intent on grabbing pints of beer.

Despite a downtown full of early afternoon drinkers and the effort required to close Massachusetts Street for two hours, no serious crimes or accidents were reported.

“Everything went fine,” said Sgt. Mike Pattrick, a Lawrence Police spokesman.

Kansas University journalism student John Domoney contributed to this report.

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