Calling it one of the hardest questions they have ever faced, Blossomtime President Anna Abdelnour is reporting this morning that the festival’s board of directors has elected to postpone community pageants for 2021 until after September 1st of this year.
Abdelnour says, “After speaking with the chairmen of each local program and lengthy conversations with the Board of Directions, we have decided this is the most responsible and respectful action we can take at this time.”
The typically ebullient President of the organization adds, “The Festival wants to take this down time for what we would like to call a reset. We are hoping to be able to continue with some of our time-honored traditions this spring such as Blessing of the Blossoms and other events that we feel could be possible within the guidelines set during this pandemic.”
It has been anything but easy for the organization as a whole, but reverberates through the multitude of communities across the region that play a role in the long-running pageantry and community events. Abdelnour reminds everyone, “Something that is especially important to all of us is the growth of the diverse young people we work with. We all strive to create a ‘Blue Ribbon’ experience for each of our young kids. With events limited and crowd sizes capped, we struggled to figure out what experience we could create for our new title holders.”
Recognizing that some young people have essentially been denied an opportunity to participate due to the pandemic, Abdelnour says, “In an effort to include the youth that did not have the opportunity to run for 2021, we have expanded the age limit to 17-20 years old for the 2021-2022 pageant season only,” and adds, “The health and support of the communities for not only the Festival, but each other, are far more important than the risk. The Festival is not going anywhere, we are strong and can survive this thanks to the support from our communities and sponsors.”
The Blossomtime Festival is the oldest, largest, multi-community Festival in Michigan, celebrating 115 years this year. The goal of the Festival is to provide young adults in Southwest Michigan with mentoring opportunities, to learn about the rich agricultural history of the region, and to assist in making their educational dreams come true by providing scholarships.
Each year the Blossomtime Festival crowns a Queen and King to celebrate the coming of Spring for this rich agricultural region. The first Miss Blossomtime, Catherine Burrell from Benton Harbor, was crowned in 1924 and the first Mr. Blossomtime Jake Belter from the community of Stevensville was crowned in 1997. The organization’s 88th and current Miss Blossomtime is Faith Kittleson from Berrien Springs and their 24th and current Mr. Blossomtime is Jeremiah Sterling of Benton Harbor.
