HPMS Student Gets Royal Mardi Gras Treatment

John C. Reilly was the King of Bacchus XLVII, and HPMS student Thomas Lembcke was one of his pages. (Photo: Steve Randon)
John C. Reilly was the King of Bacchus XLVII and HPMS student Thomas Lembcke was one of the pages on his parade float. (Photo: Steve Randon)

Thomas Lembcke, a seventh-grader at Highland Park Middle School, recently got to experience some Mardi Gras revelry firsthand when he was one of 18 young pages during the Krewe of Bacchus parade in New Orleans.

But wait, it gets better. Lembcke got to ride on the King’s Float with the celebrity King of Bacchus, which this year was Oscar-nominated actor John C. Reilly.

The krewe — with more than 1,400 members and 33 animated floats — stages the only parade to feature pages, and in order to receive that honor, you need to be the son or grandson of a Bacchus member. The theme of this year’s parade was “Children’s Stories That Live Forever.”

Lembcke and his fellow pages tossed beads and doubloons to the crowd during the procession through the French Quarter and other landmarks.

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