Sure and begorrah, 'tis that time of year again. St. Patrick's Day is upon us and, as usual, Dublin will be rolling out the green carpet for thousands of visitors from around the Bay Area and the Emerald Isles, too.

Mostly sunny skies (at the time of this writing) are forecast for Saturday, which is great news for parade and festivalgoers who can start their day with a plate of green pancakes at the Fire Station 16 (7494 Donohue Drive) between 7 and 10 a.m.

The Lions' Club St. Patrick's Day Parade begins at 9:30 a.m., with the parade returning to its old route around Dublin Boulevard, Village Parkway and Amador Valley Boulevard. The city received lots of input from people who wanted to see the parade move back to its traditional route.

This year we have four visitors from Dublin's sister city of Bray, Ireland. who will serve as the grand marshals of the parade. Eugene Finnegan is a member of the Bray Urban Council, who will be joined by his partner, Hope Toomy, and Bray City Engineer Sean O'Neill and his wife, Cecilia.

The festival remains outside the Civic Center, 100 Civic Plaza, where carnival rides, food and craft vendors and three stages of entertainment await. The main stage, food court stage and dance stage will be busy throughout the weekend (primarily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) with Irish music and dance.

All the festival information, including recommendations for parking, can be found at www.dublinstpats.com.

Education

Crisis: A weekend celebration might be especially needed these days for educators, who continue to face crippling budget cuts from our friends in Sacramento. According to a message from Dublin School District Superintendent Steve Hanke, "The plan calls for revenues enhancements and reductions that will total more than $2 million for the 2010-2011 year and could go as high as an ongoing reduction of $7 million in the 2011-2012 year."

There have been rallies across the state -- including Dublin -- to demand that the governor and legislature restore funding to schools. But those drumbeats may well fall on deaf ears if state revenue doesn't increase and legislators refuse to make cuts from other programs.

This means that, more than ever, public and corporate financial support of schools is going to be needed. Enter Dublin Partners in Education.

DPIE has, in the past, helped to raise money to support teacher development and student scholarships. DPIE's Executive Director and former Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart says the organization will be more focused in its giving but stay true to its "four pillars" of career skills, arts education, resources for education and educational interventions.

DPIE has raised about $85,000 so far this year, and hopes to increase that on March 21, when it holds a bowling fundraiser at Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl. People or companies interested in putting together a team should call 925-828-2551 ext. 8024.

Now, while $85,000 is a great accomplishment, especially in this economy, it's clearly not $2 million. But that's not dissuading either Lockhart or Hanke from staying the course.

"Adversity makes us all pause and look for another way around the mountain ahead," Lockhard said. "We have the talent, the energy and the desire to see our students succeed. We can be creative and find ways to help our businesses now so that when the opportunity presents itself, they will want to help us as well."

Championships: Finally this week, congratulations go out to a couple of Dublin teams that won championships in the past couple of weeks.

Dublin High's boy's soccer squad won their first ever NCS championship. A couple of nerve-racking games with shootouts following overtime gave the Gaels their trophy.

And a few weeks ago I mentioned the Fallon Middle School competitive cheer team. Well, the girls recently returned from the USA Jr. Nationals in Southern California where they not only won the championship in their division, they had the highest score among the 30-plus schools competing in all categories and received the "Grand Champion" award. Great job, girls!

Contact Alan Elias at elias2000@sbcglobal.net