May 10, 2007

TULIP FEST TAKES ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER

by Janine Calsbeek    Sioux County Capital-Democrat (reprinted with permission of Pluim Publishing, Inc.)

ORANGE CITY – Where can the queen and court park during the Festival?

Will the night show people ride the trolley in the parade?

KCAU, KTIV, KMEG, KSFY – they all need space during the parade. Where?

Who could rewrite scripts for the local floats?

Does anyone have one of those things you hang upside-down from... for Vande Fear?

Who's going to Pella?

Who can help in the Windmill information booth? With reserved seating? With night show tickets? With... ?

Tulip Festival details – there are hundreds, thousands. Did Deb De Haan's grandfather, George Dunlop, ever dream that the Tulip Festival he helped with years and years ago... would get this big?

Someone from another town complained that their centennial celebration was a tremendous amount of work. He asked, How does Orange City do this every year?

Maybe it's easier if you do it every year, said Bert Aarsen.

There are definitely a lot of people – from Orange City and all of the towns nearby – who commit time and energy to this event. Go to one of the early morning steering committee meetings and you'll see.

Members of the executive steering committee are Denny and Deb De Haan, Todd and Kris McDonald, Dale and Cheryl Hiemstra, Marilyn Van Engelenhoven, and Bert and Peggy Aarsen. It's a five-year commitment. This year the De Haans are chairs of the entire Festival, next year the Aarsens will step into that job.

There are four big committees – program, parade, promotion, and property – and each of the families chairs one.

And there are umpteen subcommittees.

Plus the past chair Wanda Vande Kieft, the Festival coordinator Rachel Meekma, the historian Nelva Schreur, and the costume coordinators Marlys Hops and Denise De Vries, all do their part.

Sometimes there's not enough time in the day, but, said Deb De Haan, "this week was way better than last week!" She not only works as a nurse in the clinic, serves on the school board and volunteers with Hospice, but the De Haans' youngest daughter Michelle is graduating in May, and they're visiting colleges. At least there's no wedding this year. Last year their daughter Jessica got married a week before the Festival.

"Never a dull moment," said De Haan.

Picking tulips

Todd McDonald likes those early mornings a week or two before the Festival, picking tulips. "That's always fun."

And he thinks the night show is the "amazing thing" about our Festival.

He and Kris love getting to know Orange City people – creative people, people with great ideas, people who are willing to learn to Dutch dance or do props for the night show, people from a variety of work places and different churches. Many of them help on his and Kris' program committee, or elsewhere.

But the most fun? After six months or more of work on everything from the Straat Feest, the Dutch Dozen and the flower show to the queen and court, the Extravaganza and the night show, the McDonalds love, he said, "seeing it all come together."

The parade is the Hiemstras' thing, but someone else sends out letters to potential parade entries, heads float building or float maintenance and contacts bands. Every Wednesday night, people gather to work on the new Sinterklaas float... and to rebuild another one. Cheryl Hiemstra has been sewing an outfit for the float's Zwarte Piet – not a real person, by the way. She's been findings wigs, beards and 200 silk tulips. And now, she said, they're looking for volunteers to hot glue the tulip petals together, so they don't look windblown after the first parade.

Yes, she has a list of people who have helped before, and those people often invite friends to help.

Dale Hiemstra visits Bob De Haan every morning at MOC-FV High, since De Haan and his construction class are building the new StraatMarkt booth. Dale picks up supplies, then stops again later to see what else De Haan needs.

Someone has to determine who can be in the parade and who can't... and everyone wants to be there Saturday afternoon, Dale said. The parade people try to keep it from being too long.

Why did the Hiemstras say 'yes' to this?

They've been doing mission projects in West Virginia with the Reformed Church in America for 20 years, they said, and helping with Rocky Mountain High for that long too. It was time to do something different, something local. "It was time to help our community," said Cheryl. And Tulip Festival is a major part of Orange City, she said.

Bert and Peggy Aarsen are the behind-the-scenes folks – the property committee – everything from water tanks and bleachers to insurance and spot-a pots  – Bert's biffies, they've been dubbed. They're in charge of storage of all things Festival-ish. Concessions, the StraatMarkt and Art Burst all fall under their domain. Okay, it's not all behind-the-scenes.

The new StraatMarkt booth, Straat Winkel, will feature Orange City / Tulip Fest paraphernalia... and it's a one-piece unit on wheels. That's something they've learned, ways to make the booths consistent and easier to transport. The StraatMarkt is a lot of work, said Bert, but worth it. The effect of the little shops among the shade trees is lovely.

They discuss vendor fees and what to charge the carnival folks. "We try to bring in a little money," said Bert, "hopefully more winnings than losings." After all, the committee has to pay its bills – advertising, new floats, etc.

Someone has to make sure the steering committee's two-way radios work, and the public address system works. The latter takes patience. "It's a bugaboo every year," said Bert. He's looking forward to the Central Avenue street project, when the wiring will go underground.

He has to mention the city, and the huge amount of work done by city employees to prepare the town. It's beyond the call of duty.

What he and Peggy like is the teamwork – all sorts of people working their tails off, all working together. "That's the beauty of Tulip Festival," he said.

Crunch

"The crunch time is coming, everybody is kicking into gear," said Marilyn Van Engelenhoven.

She has her own promotion responsibilities... which she squeezes between everything else. It helps to be organized. "If I lose my pencil and paper, we're in trouble," she said.

What's fun, she said, is working with positive, dependable, energetic people. She's impressed at volunteers this year – and their fresh ideas.

It seems like people stay focused on the purpose of the Festival, Marilyn continued: "to promote our heritage... why we're here. Why Orange City was settled... And it's a good coming together of people, no matter what their nationality.

"We put on a pretty nice festival, and people don't have to spend much money," she added. Visitors are amazed at what a lovely, clean town Orange City is. Our town "is kind of a best-kept secret. People come here and say, 'Why did we not come here before?'"

The whole thing is amazing, said Deb De Haan. "I marvel the week of Festival" – signs go up, bleachers are erected, people get their jobs done.

Of course, it helps that a few have been working on the Festival since last June... that's how new ideas come to be implemented – lots of brainstorming. Then hard work.

Yes, it can be stressful. But Deb grew up as the daughter of the town mayor, Robert Dunlop, and she had the love of the Festival instilled from infancy. Her Festival fever rubbed off on Denny, who, years ago, avoided it.

Now they love almost all of it, except for that one Friday night when Orange City was hit with tornado warnings. Deb worried about band kids at the shelter house, and others. Another year it was so hot that kids fainted. "We're praying for good weather, nice calm weather."

She and Denny are also hoping that the Festival continues to blossom for many years.

Who knows what Tulip Festival will be like in 50 years? she said. "I hope there will still be people with a passion."

By the way, volunteers are needed, always – whether you'd like to help build floats or work with games at the StraatMarkt or announce during the parade or something else. Call any of the steering committee members, or Rachel Meekma (707-4510). A special appeal comes from Brian De Jong (737-3452) and Barb Lubbers (737-8208), who need people to man the Windmill information booth for two-hour shifts, especially on Saturday. "It's a painless job," said Brian.

Remember, almost everybody gives a little, even the Tulip court. Where CAN they park during the Festival?

On the west side of the park? No. At city hall? Probably.

But, please, girls, drive small cars.

The beauty of Tulip Festival, said Bert Aarsen, is seeing so many people and organizations work together. Everyone's busy with more than the Festival, especially steering committee people... but it still happens. And with improvements every year. This May, see some of the Festival attractions that you usually miss, the committee advises. The Festival executive steering committee members are, l-r, Bert Aarsen, Dale Hiemstra, Kris McDonald, Todd McDonald, Marilyn Van Engelenhoven, Peggy Aarsen, Deb De Haan, Cheryl Hiemstra and Denny De Haan. (Photo by Janine Calsbeek)

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