By Monique Roth

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – It’s the last weekend before Mardi Gras day, and five River Parishes parades rolling over the next few days will help locals revel in the Carnival season.

Today the Krewe of Towahpasah, Reserve’s distinctive parade, will start to roll at 1 p.m. This year is the 30th anniversary of the parade, and it will feature a variety of vehicles and groups.

Also rolling today is St. Charles Parish’s Krewe of Lul. This year marks the 37th ride for the krewe. Krewe of Lul will being to roll at noon, and consistent with previous years, this year’s parade will feature St. Charles Parish sheriff units, St. Charles Parish Hospital EMS units, fire department trucks, 10 dance teams, several festival queens, two different horse groups, approximately 30 floats and the Hahnville High School band.

Krewe du Monde, the largest parade in the River Parishes, will roll at 11 a.m. Sunday, March 2. This year is the first year that the parade has a planned 11 a.m. start time. Last year, the parade started at 11 a.m. because of the threat of inclement weather.

Krewe du Monde, a parade with a purpose, is a fundraiser for the local chapter of the Lion’s Club. The club is actively involved in the community, serving through charity work that includes the support of sight programs and services including vision screenings, eye banks and eyeglass recycling.

Krewe du Monde will feature approximately 30 floats and numerous school groups this year. New to the parade will be a trailer that will run at the end of the float procession. Parade participants will be able to throw beads back into the trailer, and the beads will be sorted and resold by the ARC of St. John.

It should be noted that the parade will end at Belle Terre Boulevard and Fairway Drive. A map published previously by L’Observateur mistakenly depicted the parade continuing past that point.

The Krewe of Des Allemands will also roll Sunday, March 2. The parade start time is 1 p.m.

Ronald and Audrey Matherne of Des Allemands will reign as king and queen of the Krewe of Des Allemands. The royalty of the parade is always a married couple, and the Mathernes have been married for 60 years.

The Krewe of Tomorrow, St. James Parish’s only carnival parade and the only parade in the River Parishes that rolls on Fat Tuesday, will roll Tuesday, March 4, at 1:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “70s Soul Train Mardi Gras.”

President Roxie Batiste, one of the two presidents of the krewe, said this year’s parade will feature eight floats, three marching groups, horses, cars and trucks.

Batiste said this year will be bigger than years past and that each year the parade gains more and more momentum.

All River Parishes school districts have announced school closings in observance of Mardi Gras.

St. James Parish public schools will be closed March 3-5 and reopen on March 6. The St. James School Board Office will return to work on March 5.

All St. John Parish and St. Charles Parish public schools will be closed from March 3-7 and return on March 10.

St. Charles Parish’s Adoption Saturday, hosted by the animal shelter, is cancelled for March 1 and St. Charles Parish governmental offices have announced they will close on March 3 and 4.