Carmen Ramos, a Lenox Hill Hospital emergency room registrar, is eagerly awaiting and preparing for June 9th. That is the day when the National Puerto Rican Day Parade (NPRDP) will step off with 1199SEIU President George Gresham as International Grand Marshal. Gresham will be followed later in the parade by an 1199SEIU float with musicians and scores of members.

“I’m proud to be one of our Union’s dancers,” says Ramos, who is one of the 1199SEIU members who will dance to traditional Puerto Rican music during the entire length of the parade. Of Puerto Rican heritage, she was raised in Spanish Harlem ad the Bronx .

“I’ve been dancing for three years and I think it is a beautiful expression of our heritage and culture,’ she said. “I particularly enjoy dancing the bomba and our interactions with the drummers.” Bomba music can be traced to African slaves; It also has influences from different regions of the Caribbean.

“I am excited about the parade because I’m proud of my heritage and to be able to participate in a celebration of it,” Ramos says. “And I’m also proud of my Union. It has made a difference in my life. The health fund made sure my husband had good care before cancer took his life.

“I think it’s also fitting that the theme of this year’s parade is health care. I believe that every chance we get, we need to talk about the importance of health care for all. I still know too many people who don’t have health insurance.”

The Parade takes place annually along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on the second Sunday in June, in honor of the nearly four million inhabitants of Puerto Rico and over four million people of Puerto Rican birth or heritage residing in the U.S.

The largest number of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. lives in New York City. And there are Puerto Rican members in all 1199SEIU regions, with rapidly growing numbers in Central Florida.

In addition to Gresham, this year’s Padrino of the parade will be Manuel Perfecto, president of Puerto Rico’s Union General de Trabajadores (UGT).

“Knowing that George Gresham is the Grand Marshal make me want to burst at the seams,” Ramos says. “We’ll all be walking proud on June 9th.”