Secret Grand Marshal chosen for world's smallest St. Patrick’s Day parade

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The world's smallest St. Patrick's Day parade has just named a secret Grand Marshal.

Enterprise, Alabama confines its marchers to just one person who walks one city block around the courthouse to the Boll Weevil monument and back again.

Enterprise is believed to be the only city on earth to have a monument to a bug

This year, however, the Grand Marshal is a closely guarded secret.

Despite local newspaper efforts to find out this identity of the flag bearer, Enterprise Chamber of Commerce President Phil Thomas won’t say who it is.

“We like to keep an element of surprise,” Thomas said Tuesday. “I will say it is a person of Irish descent who has been a big fan and big supporter of the parade over the years.

"For the past 17 years, at high noon on St. Patrick’s Day, a Grand Marshal dressed in green carries the colors of the Emerald Isle one city block from the Enterprise Courthouse, around the Boll Weevil Monument and back again," said Thomas.

“The one-man parade on March 17 will take about 15 minutes with fun, music and old-fashioned Irish pride.”

The event ends with a reception at Billy Murdock Realty.

The novel St. Patrick’s Day Parade was created in Enterprise by the late Pat Donahue.

“We knew we could never be the largest parade, so we opted to be the smallest,” said Thomas.

The event has received international attention. “We have been on Irish radio,” said Thomas. “National Public Radio did a live radio remote broadcast one year.”

“We’re hoping everyone comes out to get in the Irish spirit,” said Thomas. “Don’t forget to wear your shamrocks.”

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Nster.com