Award recipients will be honored during annual parade

By K eith O ’C onnor Secial to The Republican

AHOLLYWOOD ACtor and Holyoke native, and a longtime member of the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee of Holyoke, who is committed to working with victims and families who are witnesses to crimes and also to ending child abuse, along with outstanding members of the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee of Holyoke, are among this year’s award winners who will wear their green in the line of march during the St. Patrick’s Parade on Sunday.

• Born and raised in Holyoke, actor Lenny Jacobson is the 64th recipient of the John F. Kennedy National Award, presented annually to an American of Irish descent who has distinguished themselves in their chosen field.

“I am so excited to have

HADLEY

Lenny Jacobson as our JFK Award recipient. He’s from Holyoke, so he is sure to bring down the hometown crowd. His successes I’m sure make his family and friends so proud, as is the city of Holyoke. It’s an honor to have him as our award winner and at our homecoming weekend events,” said Karen Casey, president of the St. Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke.

Jacobson attended Blessed Sacrament School and graduated from Holyoke Catholic High School, where he was a member of the 1991 Western Mass Division III champion basketball team. In 2001, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and got his big break on the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie.” Since then he has worked on a number of television series, including “NCIS,” “CSI,” “For All Mankind,” “Peacemaker,” “Marcos: Mexico” and many others. He also had a starring role in the science fiction series “Frequency,” which ran for 14 episodes on the CW network.

Back to the beginning for St. Pat’s contingent

By C ori U rban Special to The Republican

WHEN THE South Hadley contingent of the annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade moves along the parade route, it will unfurl its flag theme.

That theme, “1776 – The Beginning” refers “to the American flag and when it started and how it has evolved through the years,” explained Jacqueline L. Reardon, regional liaison between South Hadley and Holyoke.

The South Hadley marshal is Sara Butler who was born,

• The 70th Grand Marshal of the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade is Jane Coughlin Chevalier, who currently serves as director of the Victim Witness Assistance Unit in Hampden County under District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni. The Grand Marshal is the highest local honor given to a person of Irish ancestry and either a resident of Holyoke or a member of the Parade Committee, who has distinguished themselves as a loyal person to the Parade Committee, their career, family and to their Irish ancestry.

A graduate of Holyoke High School, Chevalier earned an associate’s degree in early education from Bay Path University and bachelor degrees from Elms College in sociology and elementary education. Her love of working with children began at Mont Marie Day Care Center in Holyoke and continued with the opening of her own family day care, which provided her the opportunity to be home when her daughters were young. She is on the board of directors for the Children’s Museum at Holyoke and is chair of the Massachusetts Children’s Alliance, a statewide organization that pioneers the most promising ways to end child abuse. Her involvement in the Holyoke Parade Committee was inspired by her late dad Edward Barrett “Pop” Coughlin, who was Grand Marshal in 1992 and was committed to assisting in parade coordination throughout the years. raised and lived in eastern North Carolina until she and her late husband, Larry, moved to South Hadley in 2015 to be near their only child, Kyle, his wife Caitlyn, and three grandchildren who live in Northampton. She is an election poll worker for the town of South Hadley, a member of Pine Grove Condominium Association and a member of the South Hadley St. Patrick’s Parade Committee.

“Jane Coughlin Chevalier is a great choice for our Grand Marshal this year. She is a longtime member of the committee, past president, and a former Rohan award recipient. Jane can always be counted on to help wherever needed, as in her role as Deputy Chief of Staff for Parade Coordination, except this year, and many other things she does. I’m excited for Jane and her family and look so forward to marching with her this year,” Casey said.

• Other award winners include Claire Cronin, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland nominated by President Joe Biden in June 2021, recipient of the Ambassador Award; the Holyoke Caledonian Pipe Band, which has received the Citizenship Award; Cathy McEvady, Thomas F. Rohan Award winner; Kelly Anne McGiverin, George E. O’Connell Award recipient; and Jenn Voyik-Morrison, Daniel J. Gallivan Award recipient.

Among the others in the South Hadley contingent will be members of the South Hadley Select Board, representatives of the South

Hadley Fire Districts 1 and 2, the South Hadley High School Band and cheerleaders and members of the school’s championship boys’ and girls’ soccer teams. Reardon, who has been a member of the St. Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke for 23 years, said she “loves every minute” and that the other members are like her second family. “The St. Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke and all the regional groups came back after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 and have shown that they were excited to be back marching in the streets of Holyoke and putting on the best parade ever,” she said. “These committees work hard all year to promote pre-parade events that lead up to parade weekend and celebration of their Irish ancestry.” She has long enjoyed seeing the parade leave the K-mart parking lot and entertain the crowd along the parade route.