Grand Marshal

Brooklyn’s 65th annual Norwegian Day Parade honored Thrive Collective executive director Jeremy Del Rio as grand marshal and guest speaker on May 21st.

“This year’s guest speaker and grand marshal was Jeremy Del Rio, co-founder of Thrive Collective, a nonprofit that creates hope and opportunity through arts and mentoring in public schools. Del Rio — “a Bay Ridge guy,” according to Rutuelo, whose mother is of Norwegian descent — also teaches youth and community development at Alliance and Fuller seminaries, as well as mentoring youth workers.” – Brooklyn Reporter, “Bay Ridge marches on in milestone Norwegian Constitution Day Parade” (5/22/17).

Ironically, next Sunday Jeremy will be speaking at the Loisaida Festival – which celebrates Puerto Rican culture in the neighborhood where his church has served for 35 years. Jeremy’s unique ethnic heritage is equal parts Puerto Rican and Norwegian, in itself an extreme rarity. This year he’ll speak at Norwegian and Puerto Rican festivals on back to back Sundays. How bizarre is that!