York St. Patrick’s Day Parade Info

2024 GRAND MARSHAL … Kelley Gibson

Leading the festive 2024 Celtic celebration will be Grand Marshal Kelley Gibson

Born in New Jersey as an Irish twin and the fifth of six children in the Fay household, Kelley Gibson grew up with a fierce pride in her Irish heritage. Emigrating from Galway, Longford and Cork from 1850-1894, all of Kelley’s great grandparents settled in the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Madison in Brooklyn. In 1935, Frank Michael Fay moved from Philadelphia to Madison and stole the heart of a 21-year old shop clerk named Mary Reilly, 11 years his junior. Her Irish-born father was against the marriage, so they eloped. Once Kelley’s father Frank was born and Grandpa James laid eyes on him, he said; “May be a Fay but he looks like a Reilly” and all was forgiven. Frank fell in love with a hot-tempered Swedish/Irish redhead named Teresa Johnson, and they married in 1959. He moved his growing brood out of Brooklyn to a three-bedroom rancher in Jackson, New Jersey in 1964. Like all good Irish- Catholic families, Frank and Terry had every intention of naming all of their kids after saints, but by the time their fifth child was born they ran out of inspiration. Terry chose the male Gaelic name Kelley since it meant ‘warrior’ for her strong Irish daughter. It also guaranteed that Kelley would never find a keychain in any of the store kiosks in the 70’s and 80’s with her name spelled correctly no matter how many times she looked. Kelley fell in love with York, Pennsylvania while earning her Bachelor of Arts degree\ at York College and then fell in love with a Yorker, marrying her husband Joel in 1999 and calling York home ever since. They volunteered for their first York Saint Patrick’s Day parade in 2000 and have held various volunteer positions over the past 23 years – walking down the lead banner, collecting signs, and running the bucket brigade to name a few. As their kids Ray and Frank were born, they also helped at the parade each year; first riding in a wagon behind the lead banner, then carrying their own buckets in the brigade once they could walk.

Today Kelley is the President of the Cultural Alliance of York County, South-Central Pennsylvania’s only United Arts Fund, efficiently raising and re-granting critical operating support for arts and culture organizations and artists.  In addition to her volunteer work with the York Saint Patrick’s Day Parade and other community-wide events, Kelley is Board Chair of Citizens for the Arts statewide arts advocacy network, serves on the Board of the Rotary Club of York, is a member of the Women’s Giving Circle, and a member of the marketing committee of the Farm and Natural Lands Trust. Kelley was named a Central Penn Business Journal 40 Under 40 recipient in 2007, recipient of a Downtown First Volunteer of the Year award in 2003 and 2009, a Susquehanna Style Women of Influence in 2018, became a York Federal Fellow in 2020, and was one of York College of PA’s Outstanding Alumni recognized in the Year of 50 Spartans.

Thank you to the following sponsors of the York Saint Patrick’s Day Parade…