St. Finn Barr School Peace Parade on for Jan. 30

St. Finn Barr students marched through their Sunnyside neighborhood in San Francisco Jan. 31, 2019, in the parish school's Peace Parade, an annual public celebration of faith and community. (Courtesy photo)

Jan. 4, 2020
Catholic San Francisco

St. Finn Barr School and Archbishop Riordan High School will join hands Jan. 30 for the schools' ninth annual Peace Parade, bringing a message of social justice to the community during Catholic Schools Week.

The parade always takes place during Catholic Schools Week "to share the good news of Catholic schools with the community," St. Finn Barr principal Mele Mortonson told Catholic San Francisco.

Mortonson gave these details on the parade plan:

-- Escorted by an SFFD engine and SFPD Ingleside Station officers organize traffic 

-- Every grade focuses on one service organization (local, regional, national or international) for the week and highlights that group to the entire school before we march. 

-- Route: Edna to Monterey Boulevard to Hazelwood, to Judson (say goodbye to ARHS band) and back to Forester 

Each year neighbors, shopkeepers and preschoolers come out to wave and support the parade, Mortonson said. 

"We would love to make this a tradition for all Catholic schools in the archdiocese during CSW, maybe even together," she said.

St. Finn Barr Catholic School was founded as a parish school in 1962. It was originally administered by the Irish Sisters of Mercy until 1997 and by the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines until 2003. 

"The school continues to provide a tradition of academic excellence, serving culturally diverse students from St. Finn Barr and other parishes in the San Francisco Bay Area," the school says on its website.

The school "is dedicated to meeting the spiritual, academic, physical and emotional needs of every child entrusted to its care," Mortonson says in a principal's message on the website. "Our community embraces every child's potential to become an independent thinker, lifelong learner, and valuable member of a larger community who live Gospel values in the Catholic tradition."
 


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