Plans underway for Max's Mardi Gras

Brockport's fourth annual Max's Mardi Gras will be held Saturday, April 27. The parade will begin at the corner of Main and Market Streets at 10 a.m., go south on Main Street and west on Adams Street. The festival will begin at Special Olympics Park on the SUNY campus when the parade reaches that site and will continue until about 2 p.m. Max Monaghan, 11, who is HIV positive, will be parade marshal again and children who are clients of Camp Good Days and Special Times, the Cerebral Palsy Association, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation will be special guests. They are invited to ride on floats, sit on the reviewing stand, and join in festival games and activities especially for them.

In response to the events of September 11, the organizing committee chose "Uniting for America's Kids" as this year's theme. Participants in the parade and festival are encouraged to display patriotic colors and ideas while continuing the emphasis on service to children with life-threatening illnesses or severe disabilities.

Some participants in 2001 expressed a safety concern that some parade watchers had run into the street for beads. The committee has decided that beads may be thrown or handed to onlookers only by walkers near the curbs and that the public will not be allowed on the street during the parade. Monitors along the parade route will enforce that rule.

Contact Bill Andrews, committee convenor, at 637-3721, 727-1748 or wandrews@frontiernet.net for information. Red, white and blue Mardi Gras beads may also be ordered from Andrews.