Correspondent photos / Sean Barron Members of the Ursuline High School cheerleading squad front a large eye-catching shamrock along Market Street in Boardman, the site of Sunday’s 48th annual Mahoning Valley St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

BOARDMAN – A 1.5-mile stretch of Market Street was a sea of green, filled with pageantry and blanketed with a plethora of memories.

“Not only was she proud of her Irish heritage, but proud of our country and the right to vote,” Sharon Sabatka said.

Sabatka was referring to her late sister, Joyce Kale-Pesta, who began working in 1988 for the Mahoning County Board of Elections and was its director before she retired in 2021. Kale-Pesta died April 10, 2024, at her residence. She was 76.

Her fond memories of Kale-Pesta also extended to the 48th annual Mahoning Valley St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday along Market Street. Kale-Pesta, a 1966 Ursuline High School graduate, was one of the parade’s founding members.

Sabatka’s recollections also align with the parade’s theme, “Forever green,” which was intended to remember and honor the late parade committee members as well as the traditions they worked to cultivate and continue.

In addition, Sabatka lost her son, Anthony M. Sabatka, who died March 2 at age 40.

Wearing a button Sunday that read, “Vote, hugs, Joyce,” Sabatka called her late sister, “a wonderful mom. If she loved you, she loved you.”

In the parade’s early days in downtown Youngstown, Kale-Pesta worked closely with the late Pete Gabriel, a longtime area broadcaster on WKBN-AM 570 who founded the parade in 1979. More recently, she served as parade president and was grand marshal in 1996.

Others who assisted with the parade or served as sponsors and were fondly remembered amid the festivities Sunday were D. Michael McCarthy and Daniel McCarthy, Colleen Savage and Vince Gilmartin, Charles and Dorothy Butler, Patrick Chrystal and William V. Carney.

The parade, which proceeded from McClurg Road to Southwoods Drive, typically draws 20,000 to 30,000 spectators each year, but this year’s event was expected to bring about 30,000 to line both sides of Market Street. A contributing factor likely was Sunday’s weather of partly cloudy skies, a slight wind and temperatures in the high 60s, Casey Malone, parade president, noted.

An estimated 140 units comprised the Irish tradition, she said.

Malone also is Gilmartin’s daughter.

Parade participants included the Boardman Police Department, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, the Youngstown State University Penguins football team, Boardman and Ursuline high schools’ marching bands, Mahoning Valley Pipe Trades Local 396, Cub Scouts Pack 55, Save the Mill Creek Park Deer organization, Boy Scout Troop 55, Alta Head Start, Groover Roofing & Siding, the McDonald Pipe Band bagpipers, the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office, Touch the Moon Candy Saloon, the YMCA of Youngstown, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the DeBartolo Corp. Various political figures and media outlets also took part.

Of the tens of thousands who gathered for a taste of longtime Irish tradition, many of them were children, including brothers Anthony Curtis, 3, and Robert Curtis, 4, of Lowellville, who wore matching green T-shirts that read, “Let the shenanigans begin.”

“We come yearly,” the boys’ mother, Ashley Curtis, said. “The kids love the candy, and we like to celebrate and teach them some Irish heritage.”

Also excited about the candy side of the Irish ledger was Laya Wilson, 6, of Hermitage, Pa., who came with her grandmother, Katrina Jacoway. Laya spent part of the time filled with hope that her bucket would be filled with the sweet treats that parade participants tossed her way.

Besides family, Aleyah Pittrell, 15, of Ellwood City, Pa., brought and held a much smaller guest: Spike, her 1-year-old ferret, who seemed attuned to her affection and oblivious to the parade.

“He doesn’t get out much,” Aleyah said.

This year’s grand marshal was Judy Higgins-Reardon, director of Higgins-Reardon Funeral Homes and Cremation Services.

Higgins-Reardon, a 1983 Cardinal Mooney High School graduate who also graduated in 1987 from John Carroll University, joined her father, Jack Higgins, in the family business. In 1999, she and her late husband, Terry J. Reardon, became proprietors in the business, at which time the Reardon name was added.

This year’s Ockerman Award recipient was Anthony “Bert” Wainio, a 1983 Ursuline High School grad who works for Valley Industrial Trucks Inc. in Boardman.

The 2026 Lord Mayor of Kilkenny was the Burke School of Irish Dance Youngstown, which was established in 1965 and lists as its mission preserving Irish culture through dance while teaching students leadership skills, resilience and perseverance.

For Sharon Sabatka, the parade may have been a yearly green experience, but perhaps more importantly, a therapeutic way to cope with her losses and uphold part of Kale-Pesta’s legacy.

“She was a generous, kind soul,” Sabatka remembered. “She is deeply missed by me and my family.”

Following the parade was an afterparty at Magic Tree Pub & Eatery on South Avenue.