Kick-off fundraiser for Rockville Centre's St. Patrick’s Parade set for Sept. 29.

The grand marshal of next year's parade will be Dr. Drew Bogner, a Rockville Centre resident that has been the president of Molloy College since 2000.

A party on Sept. 29 will kick off the fundraising efforts for Rockville Centre’s 23rd annual St. Patrick’s Parade, which will take place on March 23.

For the 10th year in a row, RJ Daniels, on Sunrise Highway, will host the annual Fall Kick-Off Party to benefit the parade from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, and will feature an open bar, a buffet dinner, and a live performance by local musician Jim “Wolfie” McGrath.

Tickets are $50, and all proceeds support the parade. Attendees will be able to enter raffles for baskets, which will include parade merchandise, such as T-shirts, hats, bracelets, pint glasses and car magnets.

“This is the very first event of our short parade fundraising season,” said Jackie Kerr, vice president of the parade committee. “When you mix Irish pride, good company, good food and good music, you cannot go wrong”.

Each year, the parade supports three charities — a local charity, a national charity and an Irish charity — and has raised more than $1.2 million over its first 22 years.

The parade committee chose The Opening Word, a group that provides literacy, English as a Second Language and job-readiness programs to immigrant women on Long Island, as this year’s local charity. The group’s students hail from countries around the world, many of who are barely literate. Despite those handicaps, about a third of the students see employment gains. It has branches in Wyandanch, Huntington Station and Amityville.

The selected national charity is The HEARTest Yard, a North Carolina-based charity founded in 2012 by Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen and his wife. The Olsens founded this charity after they discovered their son, TJ, would be born with hypoplastice left heart syndrome. Today, TJ thrives and the The HEARTest Yard has helped numerous other babies afflicted with the disease beat the daunting odds and thrive as well.

The Irish charity chosen is The New York Irish Center, a community center in Long Island City founded in 2005 with the mission of providing social and cultural services to Irish immigrants in the tri-state area.

Representatives from the three charities will speak at the gathering.

The grand marshal of the parade will be Dr. Drew Bogner, a Rockville Centre resident that has been the president of Molloy College since 2000. Under Bogner’s dynamic leadership, Molloy College has transformed from an unheralded local college to being recognized in recent years for its excellence in nursing and overall value.

To learn more about the parade, visit www.rvcstpatrick.com.