Steve Lombardi has been inviting friends and family to a house party during the Northwest Side St. Patrick’s Day Parade for 15 years.

“When your house is on the (parade) route, you gotta throw a party,” said Lombardi, 54, who lives on Neola Avenue.

Cold, windy weather and light snow didn’t deter hundreds of children, families and bright-eyed spectators from watching the parade, which included 85 participants ranging from schools, businesses and unions.

[ Crowds brave cold afternoon to celebrate the South Side Irish ]

The parade route started at William J. Onahan Elementary School in Norwood Park, and headed south through residential Neola Avenue before cutting north on Northwest Highway and ending at Harlem Avenue. About a third of the parade route did not have rails, and parade participants were able to shake hands and give out candy to spectators.

Lombardi said what he liked most about the parade was being able to “enjoy it as an early spring event, and see everybody after a long winter.”

Charlotte Richter, 48, came from Glenview and brought her two young children, Joseph and Henry, to the parade. “We come every year,” she said. “It’s so much fun,” she added, pointing to her kids.

“And you get candy,” her 8-year-old Joseph quipped.

Going uphill on the parade route was not a challenge for the Shannon Rovers, a group that plays classic Irish music with bagpipes and drums. The kilt-wearing men and women played Irish classics and songs like “When the Saints Go Marching In” while skipping and dancing along the route.

Parade organizer Elizabeth Murray-Belcaster said this year’s St. Patrick Day Parade on the Northwest Side was the second since COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, “but it feels like it’s the first one” because it got all the preparation and backing that she and her father Daniel Murray usually get. “Last year’s was rushed,” she added.

[ Northwest Side Irish parade returns: ‘It feels really nice to be back out’ ]

Murray-Belcaster said that the parade originated in 2003, in honor of her late mother. This year the parade is dedicated to former St. Patrick High School principal Brother Konrad Diebold, who died in October .

Parade Humanitarian James D. Rodriguez, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, said he was excited for the parade because even though he had not been to a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago, he served in the Marines with Irish friends and always appreciated Irish culture. He rode in a Chevrolet Camaro tossing out candy.

The parade had two grand marshalls for the first time: Sammy Davis and his wife, Dixie Davis, held the title together. Sammy Davis, who sometimes goes by “The real life Forrest Gump,” was awarded a Medal Honor by former President Lyndon B. Johnson for his service in the Vietnam War. His story and footage of him being awarded the medal were used as inspiration for the movie “Forrest Gump.”

Murray-Belcaster said Dixie Davis plays a huge role in her husband’s life, “and we don’t ever want to forget that,” she said. The couple passed out candy from a Buick LeSabre.

Parade Queens Caroline Passmore and Alyssa O’Connell said they were honored to be named the queens of the parade. O’Connell said she had been going to the parade ever since she was a little girl, and when she saw the queens, “I always wanted to be like them.”

Passmore added when she saw the queens as a little girl she was “obsessed with the dresses.”

rrequena@chicagotribune.com