Every year the St. Patrick’s Day parade is held in Downtown Savannah, and the obvious standout beside the old cars and parade floats are a group of old, usually quite heavy men, riding tiny cars and dancing with their shirts off. It may be an odd sight, but believe it or not, these are members of one of the nations longest running charity organizations and their belly dancing is all done for a good cause.

The Shriners are a Masonic (that’s a kind of religious group) fraternity (that means men only) that’s been gathering together since 1872 (that means a long time ago) to raise money for ill and disabled children. Nowadays they choose to go about it in a fun way.

Shriners can be found participating in local events and hosting fundraisers, seen locally as the “Alee Shriners” a chapter who have been participating almost every year in the Savannah St. Patrick’s parade, doing the aforementioned dancing and tiny car driving while also handing out “tickets” that are really instructions on how to donate money to their cause. If you’re downtown this St. Paddy’s Day then be on the lookout for some shriner shenanigans!