Tulip Festival
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

We are all looking forward to the 80th Annual Tulip Festival, held every year since 1936 except for World War II and the 2020 Pandemic. There will be a few changes to try to keep everyone safe. I suspect some of these changes will continue because we have found some new ways to do things. For one, many of the events will be live-streamed. This means that people from anywhere in the world will be able to observe our celebration. There will be two daily parades at the festival with the one in the afternoon live-streamed. We will have carnival rides again, but there will be some Covid restrictions including extra cleaning on the rides.

Poffertjes will be served from the Windmill Park Shelter instead of the Little White Store. There was always a long line of people waiting for poffertjes and this way they will be outside and can social distance while waiting in line. A new event will be the Tour De Tulip Bike ride on Saturday morning. People participating will meet downtown and ride out to the airport to take part in the Fly-In breakfast. Cost will be $30 and includes breakfast plus quite a few other things.

We don't have brochures yet because they are still at the printers (decision wasn't made to have the festival until about a month ago so brochures haven't had time to be completed). If you would like a brochure when we get them, please e-mail Jubon Juweelen and we will send one out to you. E-mail jubonjuweelen@gmail.com

Masks will be required at the night show because it is not possible to social distance there. However, people who bought tickets have the option of viewing it on their computers rather than coming in person. I understand that people from all over the country will be watching the show. -- These are some of the positive things that have come out of Covid.

Jubon Juweelen will be operating the Straat Winkel just north of the court house from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day of the festival. We will be limiting the people inside to three at a time. Someone will be at the door to supervise that and visit with you until your turn has come. We received a large order of new products for the festival including some magnets with the Orange City windmill. We had these in the past, but they sold out pretty quickly, so hopefully we have enough now to satisfy customers.

There will be a pet parade on Saturday night with animals dressed up in Dutch costume. Another change due to Covid will be the craft show. Instead of having crafts for sale in a bank basement, a large tent will be erected on 1st Street SW, in front of the Tulip Gardens, with crafts. The Art show will still be on the Court House lawn on Friday and Saturday, but the Author's Corner will not be held this year. However, we will have several local books available at the Straat Winkel.

Current information can be found on the Tulip Festival website at www.octulipfestival.com.

Spring Fling, Chamber Merchant Bingo, April 19 - 24
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

The Orange City merchants were anxious to have some type of promotion before the festival after a long winter with not much going on, so 20 merchants are participating in a Chamber Bingo. Today (April 24) is the last day to participate so hop over to one of the merchants participating and pick up a Bingo card (that includes Jubon Juweelen). Each Bingo is worth one entry into the drawing for prizes. You must drop off the completed Bingo card to any participating merchant or the Chamber Office by Tuesday, April 27 to be entered to win. One winner per household. Winners will be announced on Friday, April 30.

You do not need to make a purchase at the merchants in order to have them mark off their square. The idea is to get people into the store and see the merchandise and acquaint people with us.

Many of the merchants are offering specials (listed on the back of the card) and there have been many prizes donated. There are some new businesses participating and they would like you to get to know them. You can learn more about the promotion by going to www.orangecityiowa.com/chamber.

Jubon Juweelen is offering 15% off disc golf discs for the week.

Gutermann Thread
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

If you still need thread for sewing your Dutch costume, don't forget that we carry a full line of Gutermann thread. Gutermann thread is a high quality thread made in Germany that many that make Dutch costumes swear by.

Juliana's Frisbee Adventures
By Owner: Bonnie Meier & Juliana Korver

I know that many of you subscribe to our newsletter just to follow disc golf. This past month Juliana was featured in the podcast, Running it with Nate Sexton. I found it very interesting. She describes how she got involved in disc golf in the first place and then follows her career as one of the early women involved in the sport. You can listen to the podcast wherever podcasts are streamed or you can find it on YouTube (even though it is audio only).

Also, in disc golf this past month a small group of players held a roller distance competition in San Diego in an attempt to break one of the more obscure WFDF (World Flying Disc Federation) World records. They were going after the turf roller distance, meaning it was on grass instead of the non turf record which was set on a dry lake bed. A throw is considered a roller if it rolls at least as far as it flies. This event is rarely contested. The current women's turf roller record was set November 9, 1996 in Malmo, Sweeden at 95.12 meters (312 feet) and would be considered very soft, as most professional women playing disc golf could beat it given the opportunity.

In a distance competition, each competitor is given 5 throws a round. There can be up to 3 rounds in a day. With Juliana's first throw, she broke the current women's mark. She then pushed her own mark back a couple more times. Her longest roller was thrown during her second set and measured in at 144 meters (472 feet). Because Juliana is 50 years old, if approved, this record will be recorded for the open women, women 35 and over, and women 45 and over. Rick LeBeau also set a record that day, provided it is approved, throwing a roller 160 meters (524 feet) to push the men's age 55-64 record up by 2 meters.

Juliana's record breaking roller can be viewed here on her Instagram account.

For those who might not be familiar with it, WFDF is the international governing body for flying disc sports including Ultimate, Beach Ultimate, Disc Golf, Freestyle, Guts, and Individual Events. They have responsibility for sanctioning world championship events, establishing uniform rules, setting standards for and recording of world records. It is a federation of member associations which represent flying disc sports and their athletes in 91 countries and is an international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Paralympic Committee (IPC), International University Sports Federation (FISU), member of the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), Association of IOC Recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF), International World Games Association (IWGA), International Masters Games Association (IMGA), Association of IOC Recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF), Association for the International Sport for All (TAFISA). You can read more about them at wfdf.sport.

Book Reviews
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

My reviews this month are going to include new books that relate to Orange City or to the Tulip Festival.

This was written in celebration of our 75th Tulip Festival anniversary and is a beautiful large book filled with pictures and history of the Tulip Festival. Bill's father served as the city's Town Cryer for many years. This is a 128 page book and sells for $46.67. I believe that every page has a picture, some in color and some black and white. Some would call this a coffee table book as it measures 12" x 9".

It is actually a book of photographs taken by Mr. Clement who is a Dutch immigrant himself and lived in New York while he was working on this project. The project took him five years and included ten trips to Orange City and was completed in 2011. Many of the photographs poke fun at the subjects and the settings, but it is fun through mutual respect. This book normally sells for $35.00, but if you order through this newsletter, we'll sell it for $25.00 until May 13 (the start of the Tulip Festival). If you would like a book just give us a call at 712-737-8920.

It is a documentary on WWII through the letters of Ralph Mouw. Lee and I copied all Ralph's letters and Lee added information between each letter telling what was going on at the time (Ralph's letters were censored and he couldn't say a lot about what was happening). Lee actually remembers reading the papers during the war and getting the information first hand. Ralph had some very interesting experiences including liberating some concentration camps. The book generally sells for $39.95, but until May 13 we'll sell them for $25.00 if you call us or come over.