Pella Tulip Queen is Dutch "by choice"

The town of Pella is sending its newest ambassadors around central Iowa with cookies and an invitation. The Pella Tulip Queen and her court are making up to six appearances each week to invite people to next month’s Pella Tulip Festival. One of their stops this past week was the statehouse, where the five young women — dressed in traditional Dutch costumes — performed a song that featured their wooden shoes. “Clip clop. Clip clop,” they sang in harmony as they tapped their shoes on the marble floor. “Everywhere in Holland Town you’ll hear that clip clip clog,” was another line in the song. Dozens of folks in Pella will be dressed like a traditional Dutch person with those wooden clogs on May 5th, 5th or 7th — the days of the Pella Tulip Festival. This year’s Tulip Queen is Marie Bruns and she says there’s no requirement that the Queen and her court are able to carry a tune or dance. “Luckily, we get lucky every year,” Bruns says of the singing talent of herself and the four other young women. “We bond pretty well.” The Tulip Festival celebrates Pella’s Dutch heritage, but Bruns isn’t Dutch.”I’m Dutch by choice,” Bruns says. “I am actually German and Czech.” Bruns, who is 18 years old, is a senior at Pella High and she’ll attend either U-N-I or Central College to study elementary education this coming fall. The first Pella Tulip Festival was held in 1935 and townsfolk have planted 25-thousand bulbs that will yield the tulip blooms that are central to the celebration — if the weather cooperates. The event will also fea4ture street washing parades, wooden shoe carving demonstrations and an antique Dutch street organ. Orange City’s Tulip Festival is celebrated two weeks later, on the third weekend in May with a flower show, two daily parades and street dancing