Finn Barr students parade for peace

St. Finn Barr students marched through their Sunnyside neighborhood in San Francisco Jan. 31, in the parish school's Peace Parade, an annual public celebration of faith and community. (Courtesy photo)

Tom Burke

Students of San Francisco’s St. Finn Barr School took a message of social justice through their Sunnyside neighborhood in their annual Peace Parade Jan. 31.

“The parade was instituted eight years ago,” Lele Mortonson, principal, told Catholic San Francisco. In preparation for the event the more than 300 kindergartners through eighth graders select an organization to study and showcase during the parade with the SPCA and the San Francisco Food Bank among this year’s choices.
Mortonson called the Archbishop Riordan High School Marching Band, a regular parade guest, a “great soundtrack for the festivities” and a great assist in coming “together in celebration of the good news that Catholic schools bring to our local and broader community." 

Officers from the SFPD Ingleside Station escorted students and parents throughout the parade route. San Francisco firefighters followed the parade in a fire engine. 

Mortonson is grateful for the warm greetings from drivers, pedestrians, residents, and local businesses as the parade passes by.

“When I see people smiling, cheering, and waving at the children, I am reminded that the sights and sounds created by our parade can really brighten people's day, and generate that strong sense of community that we know and love in Catholic schools but that also benefits the neighborhoods in which we learn," she said.