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Club Updates
There is a special t-shirt design for all of the Rotarians/Rotaractors/Interactors marching in the Kinderparade as Grand Marshalls. An order sheet was passed around at the meeting. Orders will need to be placed by April 15th. Contact Catherine to order a T-shirt if you won't be at next week's meeting.
Robert Ortman reminded us again that the challenged student luncheon at West Ottawa is coming up on April 28th. We would like to have at least 30 Rotarians attending.
John Gronberg announced that our Rotary District 6290 has committed $10,000 to the HANWASH organization.
Rudy Vedovell was at the meeting for the first time since recovering from his heart attack. He spoke at the end of the meeting and mentioned that he joined the club in 1942. He thanked the club for making him an Honorary Member.
We Have a Winner!🎉
John Helm drew the Ace of Clubs in the weekly raffle. Congratulations and Treasurer Bev will need to write that check now!
Holland Tulip Time Updates
Kim Vandermolen from Tulip Time gave us an update on what is going on with this year's festival. There are two new exhibits from the Netherlands.
- Zeeland Girl is a photography and dress exhibit by Rem van den Bosch. It will be at the Holland Armory.
- Tulip Immersion Garden is a horticulture display that traces the history of the tulip from Turkey all the way to Holland MI. It will be designed by Ibo Gülsen at the Ottawa County Fairgrounds using 50,000 flowers.
The Artisan Market and the Quilt show will be at Beechwood Church this year. This will allow 50 more vendors at the market than could be handled at Centennial Park. There will be food trucks, Dutch Dancing, and lots more parking at the Beechwood location.
The Tulip Time organization has shrunk from 15 employees before the Pandemic to 4 employees currently. This has necessitated some changes in the scope of the festival and an increased need for volunteers. There are 940 volunteers needed and about 70% of those positions are filled. Tulip Time starts exactly one month from the day of the meeting!
Our Rotary Club has historically helped by providing Grandstand Greeters during the parades. There will only be 2 parades this year. The Volksparade will incorporate the bands and will take place on Saturday. The grandstands will only be on Eighth Street in the Market area this year. There will be 8 sections and a new, expanded seating area that will allow much more wheelchair seating than before. Grandstand Greeters are responsible for an area of the grandstands and will sell any remaining tickets, help visitors find their seats, and entertain visitors with trivia and other group fun.
There is a special online signup for Rotarians at http://rotary.tuliptime.volunteerhub.com. For volunteering, you will get a special t-shirt and a limited edition pin. And, of course, you might just have a lot of fun. To see what other volunteer opportunities are available, visit http://tuliptime.com/volunteers