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  • Volunteer Kim Kibler, of Traverse City, explains information about Cherry Festival pins near the Open Space on Thursday during the National Cherry Festival. Keith King/Record-Eagle

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  • Volunteer Nancy Perreault, of Traverse City, helps a festival-goer. Keith King/Record-Eagle

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July 10, 2010

Volunteers donate their time, energy

Without their help, the festival could not go on

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE and ART BUKOWSKI Record-Eagle Staff Writers

TRAVERSE CITY — Terri Hillier has spent the last decade as a National Cherry Festival parade volunteer.

Before that, she helped with other events, including the marching band competition and the Bay Side Entertainment Stage.

She and other volunteers, including her husband, Homer, on Thursday set up tables and signs at F&M Park in Traverse City to prepare for that night's Junior Royale Parade.

Terri and Homer Hillier have been Cherry Festival volunteers for more than 20 years. They often see the same people each year. She calls it a family reunion.

"It's kind of like Christmas — when it's done, we're all exhausted," Terri Hillier said. "It's just fun."

More than 2,000 people are filling about 4,500 volunteer shifts this week, festival organizers said, a higher figure this year to accommodate the popularity of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight team.

In addition, 29 businesses and civic groups are contributing 275 volunteers, and 53 nonprofit organizations have 800 members participating, said Sharon Pierce, an assistant to the festival's operations and volunteer manager.

"We need more people, so we seem to find more people," Pierce said of Blue Angels years. "We have a lot of people that just walk up and want to volunteer."

First-year volunteer Joel Willis, 15, stood at the heart of the Open Space festival entrance Thursday as mobs of people streamed by.

Willis' mom always volunteered when he was growing up, so it was natural for him to try it out.

"It's fun," he said. "I like big crowds like this."

Volunteers generally work in four-hour shifts and can be spotted wearing name tags or color-coordinated shirts. Children as young as 12 can sign up for the festival's Junior Ambassadors program.

Children often want to dress as the event's mascot, Mr. Cherry. It's a logical choice, Pierce said, because the costume carries a height limit of 64 inches.

People often begin to register for volunteer slots in October and November, Cherry Festival spokeswoman Susan Wilcox Olson said. Many of them are people who want to work at the same events.

Sunday's Hagerty Family Car Show, for instance, was filled in March, Pierce said. Volunteers for the Global Wine Pavilion were booked by May 1.

Nancy Perreault, a Traverse City resident, has worked 11 Cherry Festivals. She hovered around the welcome center tent Thursday, helping visitors get to where they needed to be.

"I'm a people person, and that's why I enjoy this," said Perreault, 68, a former Detroit and Rochester resident. "I worked 37 years for Detroit Edison, every second of it in customer service."

Perreault likes that Cherry Festival volunteering always is changing.

"Every day, every hour, every minute is different, which is good," she said.

Jeri Braun and her husband, Denny, have worked 28 festivals. Both are Traverse City natives who grew up attending the event.

"We remember this from when we were little," Jeri said. "When the opportunity to volunteer came about, there wasn't a doubt where we were going to be."

Now the Brauns' two children work as volunteers.

"It's just a tradition," Jeri said. "I love it, promoting our area. ... This is so critical to our community."

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