MOR-TV named parade’s presenting sponsor
Ybor City, FL, March 13, 2019: Tampa’s own 1st U.S. Volunteer Regiment Rough Riders will host the 24th Annual St Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday, March 16th, 2019, on Ybor City’s historic 7th Avenue. The parade steps off at 8:00 PM, rain or shine.
This year’s Parade Grand Marshal is Sonya Bryson-Kirksey. You know her for her moving singing voice during the Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup Playoff run. Sonya Bryson-Kirksey is known to many as the woman on the jumbotron, singing the National Anthem before the Tampa Bay Lightning home games. A now-retired Air Force Sergeant with 20 years of service, Sonya moved to Tampa Bay in 2011 from an assignment in South Korea to be stationed at MacDill Air Force Base. She sang the National Anthem for the first time in public in 2003, while assigned to Air Force Recruiting Service at a training conference and has continued to share her voice across the country and abroad.
Sonya has performed the anthem in public more than a thousand times and has lent her talents to other local area events, such as the opening of the Tampa Bay outlets, UMA graduation ceremonies, Florida Medical and Polo Classic annual fundraisers and the Tampa Heart Walk.
2019 parade Chairman Rick Ceglio anticipates more than 100 parade entries, and a large well behaved and very happy crowd. “Everybody loves this parade, from the spectators, to the participants, right down to the police who are there to insure order. After all, everybody is a little bit Irish during the St Patrick’s,” said Ceglio. The parade’s new presenting sponsor is MOR-T and is co-sponsored by the City of Tampa, and includes participating sponsors Gold and Diamond Source, and Buccaneer Beads.”
While the parade makes its way east on 7th Avenue to 20th Street, families and children may take advantage and appreciate an established family friendly zone on 7th Avenue, between Nuccio Parkway and 13th Street.
ABOUT 1ST USV ROUGH RIDERS, INC.
The Rough Riders are a 550-plus member social and charitable organization dedicated to keeping history alive in Tampa Bay. Aside from their throwing tons beads while participating in Gasparilla and other local parades, they are probably best known for collecting and distributing thousands of Teddy Bears to hospital patients during the holidays and throughout the year. They fund local historical monuments, volunteer in local schools and donate much needed equipment to children’s centers in the name and image of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt and the famed Rough Riders, the organizations namesake, spent time training in Tampa in 1898, prior to making history in Cuba during the Spanish American War.
ABOUT MOR-TV:
MOR-TV is a Hearst Television owned and operated television station in Tampa Bay and is one of America’s top independent television stations. MOR-TV features the best in off-network comedies and dramas featuring The Big Bang Theory, Mom, The Goldbergs, Last Man Standing, Modern Family, Family Guy, Chicago PD, and more. MOR-TV is also one of three stations in a group that includes thisTV Tampa Bay, the markets first 24-hour over-the-air movie channel featuring blockbuster motion pictures, and estrellaTV Tampa Bay, the fastest growing Hispanic entertainment channel in America. MOR-TV’s website is www.mor-tv.com.