Grace Episcopal Church has been actively involved in Tulip Time for several decades. I became involved starting in 1986.

In the past, we were serving meals to the bus loads right at the church. Grace could seat 150 in the Under croft. Tulip Time scheduled buses for both lunch and dinner for 4 days. Each bus group would make selections from a limited menu ahead of time and each morning and each afternoon we would prepare the meals and serve each customer for that day. Vivian Cook was in charge when I started. Each recipe was written in her beautiful handwriting on large poster boards. A schedule was set up each day for preparing each recipe and a great time was had by all in the kitchen!

When other churches began serving meals with significantly more seating capacity, it became difficult for the Tulip Time office to schedule buses for us. Our next adventure was to work at the information booth at Centennial Park. Meeting the visitors during Tulip Time was great fun. Many of us had more appreciation for what is good about Holland and Tulip Time!

Our next adventure in serving at Tulip Time was Marketplatz. For the months leading up to Tulip Time, we would help make desserts, pigs in the blanket, leek soup, meatballs and pea soup at First Methodist. For many years we then served this food and many other items in the hallway of the Civic Center for 5 days. The last two years we moved to Evergreen Commons during the renovation at the Civic Center. Rules have changed and we no longer can serve our meals in the Civic Center. So now we enter into a new activity!

In 2019 when another church was no longer going to be Grandstand Greeters, we accepted the invitation. Our location is the bleachers at Kollen Park. There, we manage the tickets and help our visitors to their bleacher seats before each of the 3 parades. More to come on this adventure.

Thanks to all who have served and serve now for Tulip Time!

Submitted by: Pam Brown