STHS healthcare hero to be grand marshal of Covington parade

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Thursday, February 17, 2022

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STHS healthcare hero to be grand marshal of Covington parade

Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org

The Mande Milkshakers marching club get their groove on during the 2020 Carnival in Covington parade. This year, local healthcare heroes will serve as honorary grand marshals for the parade. (Photo courtesy Carnival in Covington)

Four Northshore healthcare heroes, including one from St. Tammany Health System, will get the royal treatment this Mardi Gras.

Representatives from all four of the hospitals in St. Tammany Parish have been invited to ride as honorary grand marshals in the Carnival in Covington parade, which rolls on the traditional Covington route on Fat Tuesday.

Their inclusion in the parade was conceived by krewe leadership as a gesture of thanks to all frontline healthcare workers for their tireless efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, Carnival in Covington Parade Committee Chairman Larry Rolling said.

He added that the plan was originally to have healthcare workers serve as grand marshals last year. COVID had other plans, however, prompting officials to cancel parades throughout the region last year – including Carnival in Covington – as infections surged.

“So we wanted to bring them in this year to have the community see them and thank them,” Rolling said.

Nursing Supervisor Brent Blazevich will represent St. Tammany Health System in the parade. A 10-year STHS veteran, he will ride on a special float with representatives of the parish’s three other hospitals near the front of the parade.

“I’ve never been in a parade, so just being part of the parade on Mardi Gras in Covington, the community I work in, I’m just really excited to see the faces I may, or may not, know,” Blazevich said.

He’s not sure if he’ll be on the sidewalk side or the “neutral ground” side of the route, but whichever it is, “I know I’ll be geared up to have a great ride.”

The 2022 Carnival in Covington parade, themed “Wish Upon a Star,” will feature 450 riders on 20 floats and will include 10 marching groups. Space X astronaut and Louisiana native Haley Arceneaux will serve as grand marshal.

The parade will follow the Covington Lions Club parade, which rolls at 10 a.m. Fat Tuesday on the traditional Covington route. It will be followed by a free Mardi Gras festival featuring music from Soul Revival at the Covington Trailhead, 419 N. New Hampshire St.

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