An organization noted for aiding first responders will serve as the grand marshal for the 48th annual South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday, March 15.
The parade will begin at noon at 103rd and Western in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood and will conclude at 115th and Western in Morgan Park.
The Tunnels to Towers Foundation will serve as the grand marshal of the parade.
The national non-profit provides mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children, and builds specially-adapted smart homes for veterans and first responders with catastrophic injuries.
The announcement was made during a press conference on the morning of Feb. 4 at the King-Lockhart Memorial Park at 106th and Western in Beverly, which is along the parade route. The Tunnels to Towers Foundation serving as the grand marshal is notably poignant since this will be the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attack.
The Foundation was created to honor the life of New York firefighter Stephen Siller, who died trying to save people who were trapped in the Twin Towers.
“He was supposed to go out golfing with his brothers that day but when he heard about what happened, he said he had to go,” said Aric Grooms, senior management development member of the Foundation. “He went into the Twin Towers and his body was never found. He was laid to rest there.”
King-Lockhart Memorial Park holds the 9-11 First Responders Monument that features a steel beam from the destroyed World Trade Center terrorist attacks that took place on Sept. 11, 2001. The New York Fire Department donated the beam to the Chicago Fire Department in 2013, honoring the late CFD Capt. Herbie Johnson, who along with other Chicago firefighters, went to New York to assist. The Herbie Foundation installed the 9-11 monument at the park.
The park is named after two fallen Chicago firefighters, Patrick King and Anthony Lockhart, who died battling a fire at the site of the park in 1998, which was then a tire store. The park was completed and officially named in 2012.
“The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has been honoring those who have given their lives or been seriously injured in the line of duty for decades,” said Bill Letz, chair of the 2026 South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “We are pleased to name Tunnels to Towers Foundation as grand marshal, honoring the significant financial impact the Foundation makes by helping the injured and their families across the country, in the Chicago area, and right here in our community.”
The parade honoree for the parade is St. Christina Parish, which is located in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood neighborhood. The parish is marking its 100th anniversary this year. The press conference began with Chicago Stockyard Kilty bagpiper Luke McGee leading a group of St. Christina students in a procession around the park.
“It’s a privilege to be celebrated alongside the Tunnel to Towers Foundation as our parish serves so many first responders and teaches many of their children in our school,” said the Rev. Ryan Brady, pastor of St. Christina.
Letz added that 80 percent of the children who attend St. Christina School are the sons and daughters of police or fire department personnel.
On hand for the ceremony was Carlos Yanez Jr., an injured Chicago police officer who was alongside Ella French, who was shot and killed after a traffic stop on Aug. 7, 2021 on the city’s Southwest Side. Yanez was shot four times in the head and face, and once in the shoulder. He lost the sight of his right eye.
Yanez thanked the Tunnels to Towers Foundation for their help and assistance for first responders who have suffered catastrophic injuries.
Tunnel for Towers will launch Steel Across America on May 1, a nationwide campaign to transport a 24-foot steel beam from the World Trade Center to communities across the country.
To honor the 343 first responders who died on that day, Tunnel to Towers will deliver 343 mortgage free homes across the U.S. as a tribute to their memories and valor.
The parade committee commissioned local artist and Chicago firefighter Timothy McCarthy to create a special commemorative design that is available on a T-shirt and commemorative poster, which was on display at the press conference.