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May 6, 2006
It does take a village
Festival celebrates 1,000 volunteers -- written by Janine
Calsbeek
ORANGE CITY, IOWA – A physician dances in wooden shoes, a bank president lines
up floats for the parade, a pizza shop manager coordinates the Dutch street
market.
A teacher gives bus tours, an attorney makes little Dutch
pancakes, the college chaplain rides through town on a Boneshaker – one of those
bicycles with the humongous front wheel.
There are people with names like McDonald, Carlson and Allen,
all in Dutch costumes.
It's Tulip Festival in Orange City, Iowa. One thousand of the
5,000 people in town are volunteers at Tulip Festival, said Wanda Vande Kieft,
who heads the Festival this year. But there are thousands of unsung heroes too.
"There are probably 4,000 behind-the-scenes people that I don't know about," she
said. They're young, they're old.
A businessman's daughter, age one, attempts to wield a broom and
scrub streets. Teenagers, male and female, make up the singing and dancing
group, the Dutch Dozen. And 500 kids from the local schools’ marching bands,
from sixth through 12th grade, march in all six parades.
A furniture salesman, age 20-something, writes fundraising letters. A
middle-aged auto mechanic/ welder crafts metal ornaments for the queen's hat. A
former mayor's wife, age 87, is one of the hostesses in the Century Home.
They're old-timers in town, they're newcomers. They're Dutch, they're not. Bill
Kepp, who's been chair of the steering committee three times, is German and
Norwegian, but started wearing a blue Dutch boy's outfit years ago, walking in
the parade with his mom.
Rachel Meekma, who coordinates the Festival, is 100 percent Dutch. Her memories
of the Fest include the year she was part of the queen's court, and the
atrocious weather. The first day was cold – they wore fur stoles for the parade.
The second day, the court members wrapped in rain coats. "The third day," said
Meekma, "it started hailing." The court entered the town hall, went downstairs,
and cried.
1968 didn't dampen Meekma's enthusiasm for long. The next year was gorgeous,
with unprecedented parking problems.
Fabric
"I love the fact that we have a heritage festival... that we celebrate being
Dutch."
That's Wanda Vande Kieft. When she was a kid, her family drove in from the farm
for the Friday evening parade and a ride. She loved it.
"After 66 years, it's a staple. It was a staple in the 70s when I was a kid."
Yes, it's hard work. And not everything goes perfectly. "You have to be able to
roll with the punches," said Anita Bomgaars, who chaired the Festival last year.
If the funnel cake stand rolls off the truck and broadsides a car, like it did
three years ago, you pick up the pieces and go on... and know that the rest of
the Festival is continuing normally. "It becomes part of the fabric of the day,"
said Bomgaars.
She doesn't let details bog her down. Thirty years ago she was involved in a
severe car accident, just outside of Orange City. It changed her life.
"Things happen fast... you realize that when you go through a traumatic
experience." Hers gave her a desire to contribute to others, to the community...
"to live my life fully."
What she hopes is that everyone involved with Tulip Festival has a great time.
Usually visitors and locals alike enjoy the flowers, the food, the music, the
dancing. And the new friendships.
For Orange City people, working for months on the Festival strengthens old
friendships and begins new ones. And some fall in love. According to Bomgaars,
involvement with the night show has led to at least three couples discovering
each other, and marrying.
"You walk away with more than you've contributed," she said with a smile.
Glue
Before the Festival, an ag loan officer decides which vendors to approve, the
auditor's assistant works on the quilt display, an electrical engineer readies
the hand carts. A city worker charges radios, a nurse organizes the drum corps
performance, a local publisher helps set up a food tent. A dentist keeps busy as
webmaster.
That third weekend in May, an insurance salesman announces the day's events, a
social worker welcomes marching bands, fire fighters pour coffee.
The parade begins and a writer pulls out his expertise in spoken Dutch, selling
fish on the street. A basketball coach carries Dutch cheese. College students
from Japan and Ghana wave from a float.
Late in the day, after the wooden shoe crafting and horse-drawn street car tours
and the heritage center flower show, others in the community put on the night
show. This year it's Hello, Dolly! A former college professor is director, a
dietician serves as producer, a teacher of deaf children does choreography, and
a nursing home administrator handles props. Actors include a pastor, a farmer's
wife and the Dial-a-Ride van driver.
The community-wide effort to put on the Festival strengthens Orange City... and
makes it more worthwhile to live here, said Hello, Dolly! Director Keith Allen.
"It's the glue to hold the village together," he said.
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