St. Patrick’s Day fundraising events scheduled

Raising some green

February

19: T-shirt pub crawl begins at 6 p.m. at Conroy’s Pub, 3115 W. Sixth St.

20: Bowling tournament, noon, Royal Crest Lanes, 933 Iowa.

21: Trivia contest at Eagles, 1803 W. Sixth St. 5:30 p.m. registration, contest begins at 7 p.m.

27: Charity benefit auction at Corpus Christi, 6001 Bob Billings Parkway. 5:30 p.m. doors open, 6 p.m. silent auction starts, 7 p.m. live auction begins.

28: Texas hold ’em, noon, the Flamingo, 501 N. Ninth St.

March

5: T-shirt pub crawl begins at 6 p.m. at Conroy’s Pub, 3115 W. Sixth St.

6: 5K Shamrock Shuffle, 7 a.m. registration at The Flamingo, 501 N. Ninth St.

13: Luck of the Irish poker run, Slow Ride Roadhouse, 1350 N. Third St. 10:30 a.m. registration, noon rollout.

14: Queen coronation at the Flamingo, 501 N. Ninth St. 5:30 p.m. dinner; 7 p.m. ceremony.

17: St. Patrick’s Day parade through downtown and into North Lawrence begins at 1 p.m. from South Park.

Several fundraising events — including a charity benefit auction on Feb. 27 — are among festivities scheduled during the next month to raise money for five local nonprofit organizations.

The events are part of a 22-year-old tradition by the Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee to benefit local groups. This year, the committee hopes to raise $50,000; last year the committee raised $48,000.

Though the parade committee typically chooses one to three charities each year to help, the economic downturn prompted committee members to expand the list this year.

“Each of the charities had an immediate need due to lack of or loss of funding … so we decided to keep them all,” said Sarajane Koch, the committee treasurer.

This year’s beneficiaries are the Women’s Transitional Care Services, Douglas County CASA, Family Promise, Van Go Mobile Arts and the Lawrence Humane Society.

“We’ll use the funds for child services in the shelter … and for weekly support groups which help create safety plans for the kids,” said Jan Sheridan, a health and wellness advocate at WTCS.

For the humane society, being selected as a beneficiary is quite an honor.

“When I found out, I was walking on cloud nine,” said shelter director Midge Grinstead, who plans to use the funds to bolster education programs.

Since the parade’s inception in 1988, the event has grown substantially.

“We started out very early on with the 5k run and the charity auction,” said Roger Browning, committee president. “The other events have grown in the following years, and this year we added a few more because of the extra charities.”

For more information, go to lawrencestpatricksdayparade.com.