BREMERTON — Onlookers may have noticed something new this year at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Bremerton: gold and green coins.

The morning of the parade, Michelle Tomlinson-Hough, vice president of the Downtown Bremerton Association, and her daughter, Kailena, hid 400 coins along the parade line.

They returned to the area later in the evening for an event at the Admiral Theatre. They looked around a bit, but there were no coins to be found.

Coincidentally, about 400 people participated in the 24th annual parade, including 25 groups, according to Gina Shultz of the Downtown Bremerton Association, which presented the parade.

Shultz said part of her mission was to provide a platform for local nonprofit groups.

“I think it turned out really well,” Shultz said. “I had never had any trouble getting participation from local groups.”

Instead of reaching out to groups, people reached out to Shultz.

“This year I did not even send out a lot invitations and I had people calling me about the parade,” Shultz said. “People like to be in the parade.”

One aspect that Shultz enjoyed was the collaborative effort. Bremerton High School students designed the parade poster and three business — Fingers Duke, SEEfilm Cinema and Jimmy Johns — donated prizes to the students.

“I think its an excellent community building exercise,” Shultz said. “It brings the different associations together and everybody had a really good time.”

Good times were had before the parade, as well. A fundraiser for the Bremerton Foodline in the form of a potato race was hosted at Burwell Street and Fourth Avenue prior to the parade.

A potato race, for the uninitiated, involves loading a wheelbarrow with sacks of potatoes and then racing.

Well, it’s slightly more complicated than that. It’s also a relay race — more potatoes are added at the end of each leg. The team with the most potatoes at the end wins.

The premise of the potato race was to have different banks compete against each other and then donate the potatoes to the Bremerton Foodline, said Shultz. However, Wells Fargo was the only bank to participate.

Patti Peterson, executive director of Bremerton Foodline, said they received 100 pounds of potatoes, a couple cans of food and $6.50 from a donation jar.

“We’re hoping to expand the potato race next year to beyond the financial institutions,” Peterson said.

Despite the lack of banks participating in the event, Peterson still considers it a success.

“It turned out really well. A lot of people had fun,” Peterson said. “For a free event for the community how can you go wrong?”