Chicago, March 1, 2024 — Mercy Home for Boys & Girls is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day while raising the funds and public awareness it needs to care for kids and families in crisis.
Mercy Home’s March for Kids will help young people heal from trauma and adversity while giving them tools to build brighter futures. Highlights of the celebration include its family-friendly party at Venue SIX10 on March 16 after the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade and a float in the South Side Irish Parade on St. Patrick’s Day.
Anyone can make double the difference in the lives of children this month. Contributions to mercyhome.org from now until March 31 will be matched by a generous donor. Funds generated by its March for Kids effort help Mercy Home provide safety, healing, education and opportunity for children 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
No matter where you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, South Side, North Side, or downtown, Mercy Home’s March for Kids has Chicago covered. Friends of Mercy Home will join several events throughout the city, including the annual March for Kids Post Parade Party, a casual, family friendly affair at Venue SIX10 on Michigan Avenue, a short walk from the parade route, from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 16.
Mercy Home’s March for Kids Post-Parade Party will feature:
- Live music by St. Stephen’s Green
- Live dancers from the Sheila Healy Academy of Irish Dance and Trinity Academy of Irish Dance
- Kid and adult beverages
- Irish-themed food buffet including a build-your-own mac-n-cheese bar for the kids
- Special children’s activity section featuring carnival and arcade games, great prizes, balloon artists, a caricaturist, a temporary tattoo station, and more!
…and so much more — all from a spacious, modern venue with sweeping views of Chicago’s Grant Park and Lake Michigan.
General admission for adults is $75, and $20 for ages 6-20. Kids ages 5 and under are free. Pre-sale tickets will be available online until midnight on March 15, then available at the door (adult tickets will increase to $85). Proceeds benefit Mercy Home.
Mercy Home will continue the festivities on the South Side on Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, by marching in the South Side Irish Parade. Mercy Home’s Walsh Girls Campus lies mere blocks from the end of the parade route. Personalities from Chicago’s Country Station US99 will join Mercy Home at both parades.
Can’t wait for parade day? No problem. Mercy Home’s Associates Board, which is made up of young professionals, will officially kick off Mercy Home’s March for Kids on March 2 with a party and fundraiser at famed Gold Coast establishment Butch McGuire’s, 20 W. Division Street, from 3 to 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $35 (until noon on March 4th), or at the door for $40. Tickets include beer, wine, and appetizers.
Mercy Home’s March for Kids has been held annually under different names, since 1996 when it was known as A Touch O’ Green. For years, it was known as Shamrocks for Kids before being renamed and expanded in 2014.
Today, Mercy Home’s March for Kids involves significant promotion from media and corporate partners, involvement in several area parades and events, and peer-to-peer fundraisers run by volunteers who donate their time and energy to help kids at Mercy Home. Look for members of the Knights of Columbus collecting donations after Mass at a number of area parishes during March. And look for public service announcements and more information from television partner ABC7 Chicago and radio partner US99.
To learn more how about you can make this month a March for Kids, visit mercyhome.org/marchforkids.
About Mercy Home for Boys & Girls
Mercy Home for Boys & Girls (www.mercyhome.org) has been a solution for kids in crisis since 1887. It offers a safe home, emotional healing, education, and life-changing opportunities for young people and members of their families. It gives children who have suffered abuse, neglect, poverty and even abandonment the therapeutic, academic and vocational support they need to heal from the traumas of their pasts and build success for their futures. Mercy Home is almost entirely donor funded and operates at two locations in Chicago – a campus for boys in the West Loop and a campus for girls in Beverly-Morgan Park.
