For the first time in 17 years Budweiser will have no Super Bowl ad featuring the famous Clydesdale horses, but Clydesdale fans in Michigan’s Great Southwest will have an even better opportunity this spring when Steve Murray and his team at Express Employment Professionals of St. Joseph bring the Express Clydesdales and their show wagon to town for an appearance in the 2018 Blossomtime Grand Floral Parade and more.
Murray is bringing the beautiful team of black horses with white stocking feet and a blaze of white on the face and black manes & tails to appear not only in the parade on Saturday, May 5th, but also in a family fundraising event the next day, Sunday, May 6th at the Berrien County Courthouse parking lot to raise awareness and funds for the Alex Mandarino Foundation in search of cures for childhood cancers.
Murray says the community day celebration will afford children and others in the community the chance to see the Express Clydesdale horse team up close and personal on a day filled with other family activities overlooking the St. Joseph River’s inner harbor.
Murray’s team at Express Pros was already well underway in planning for the Clydesdale appearance before last week’s revelation by Budweiser that their Super Bowl ad this year would focus on their emergency relief efforts providing clean, canned water for areas stricken by natural disasters over the past several years.
The parade appearance and community day will showcase the magnificent team of horses that stand more than six feet tall at the shoulder and run from 3 to 15 years in age. With hooves the size of a dinner plate, and a very gentle temperament, the Clydesdales from Express are a featured attraction at many events across the country, and Murray wanted to do something to raise funds for cancer research in light of his own battle with stage-4 cancer.
Visitors will also see the beautifully handcrafted replica of a turn-of-the-century delivery wagon, with an undercarriage and body based on a Studebaker design, further linking it to our region, since Studebaker was founded in South Bend. It was built in South Dakota by the Hansens Wheel and Wagon Shop.
Kids will be fascinated to learn that each horse consumes about 12 pounds of feed, 12 to 15 pounds of hay and 30 gallons of water in a day with occasional treats of apples and carrots.
The Express Clydesdales were first launched 20 years ago in 1998 when Bob Funk, the Chairman & CEO of Express Pros visited the longstanding Canadian Western Agribition in Saskatchewan and fell in love with the rare and beautiful black & white horses.
The Alex Mandarino Foundation is passionately dedicated to funding research for a cure to childhood cancer. It is also committed to providing financial assistance to families in Southwest Michigan whose children have cancer. They want to end the devastation these diseases wreak.
In Alex Mandarino’s five fleeting years he left an indelible imprint in the hearts of his family, friends, medical caregivers and community. His short but courageous life inspired his family to create The Alex Mandarino Foundation. Through that foundation he will make his footprint on thousands of lives overcome by childhood cancer, and that’s what drew Steve Murray to helping take up that cause with the May appearance of the Express Clydesdale horses. Stay tuned for further details as the event approaches this spring.
