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Surrey Hydrangea
  Blossom
Festival  


Festival History

HISTORY AND ACTIVITIES
 IN 1999
Surrey Hydrangea Blossom 2nd Annual Festival
August 13th, 14th, & 15th, 1999

This exciting event took place along Marine Drive in White Rock and 8th Avenue in Surrey.  The 1st Annual  All Floral Parade began at 9:00 a.m. along Marine Drive with a long distance race travelling along the same parade route one hour before the parade. 

Some of the events which took place close to the waterfront or on the ocean were boat demonstrations by the Disabled Sailing Association, along with other boating activities.  Interactive games included a popular inflatable slide and obstacle challenge course known as the Titanic, along with a Giraffe Bouncer, and a miniature train. 

Arts and crafts people were in attendance along with street art and entertainers.  A post-parade display of floral floats were also taking place in a local parking area for close-up viewing.  Local ice cream shops offered ice cream flavors to highlight the Hydrangea Blossom Festival.  Additional activities will be announced closer to the event. 

Skagit's Tulip Festival entry was being planned with a wheelbarrow precision team.  One of the longest limousines in Washington State was be carrying two young children as ambassadors to the festival.  Many other entries from local businesses and other festivals joined the fun. 
Pasadena's Tournament of Roses Parade - January 1st, 1999
 Two members of the Surrey, White Rock Hydrangea Blossom Festival and one junior member attended the largest floral parade in the world and studied judging, floral decorating, family festival events, and the actual event.  This was viewed by over 400 million people throughout the world.  Floral decorating began five days before the parade and our members participated in many of the activities leading to the parade. 

Elaine Cramer, Executive Director, has been attending most Pasadena parades for 17 years and has studied most all aspects of this parade and festival industry. Bill Lofthouse, President of Phoenix Decorating, the largest floral float building company in the world, mentored our festival group while we researched the industry in Pasadena. CNN interviewed Elaine about this parade and this was seen on TV throughout the world.

Washington Festival and Events Association Convention in Seattle
Feb. 19th & 20th, 1999
Elaine Cramer attended the 6th Annual Convention at the Seattle Hilton Hotel along with hundreds of delegates from Washington and the U.S.A.  Many participants networked with ideas and projects.  The Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival benefited by inviting some of the participants to Canada for the August 13th, 14th, & 15th, 1999 Festival. 

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Washington
March 1999
Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival's Executive Director, Elaine Cramer, was invited to be a consultant in the first farm and floral parade for Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  Ideas were being shared between both festivals and will continue with Skagit's Board of Directors and leaders participating in our August 13th, 14th, and 15th festival. 
First Floral Parade Float Entry,
Skagit's Tulip Festival Farm & Floral Parade
April 13th, 1999
Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival entered a floral covered car as a portable float.  Lefeber Bulb Farm owners Dan and Sally Lefeber donated thousands of tulips to all participants in this first farm and floral parade, sponsored by Farmers Insurance.  Fireworks were ignited in the tulip field subsequent to the parade by the Salish Indians to an excited crowd.  This project was so successful that there is a possibility these events will continue annually.  This tulip festival is listed as one of the top 100 events for bus tours in the U.S.A. 

Earth Day Party and Shoe Box Parade
April 24th, 1999
Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival is partnered with Surrey Parks Environmental Extravaganza, including the Rotary Club in a unique earth day party.  People of all ages were invited to create miniature parade floats in the size of shoe boxes.  All plant and floral materials were encouraged as well as recyclable materials.  Prizes and free starter hydrangea plants were being distributed to participants at Bear Creek Park on April 24th, 1999.  The Rotary Club and all age groups greeted the fish and poured 50,000 young fish into the creek in the park. A good time was had by all! 
Special thanks to Scouts Canada.


Portland's Grand Floral Parade
June 12th, 1999
Annual networking trips to Portland Oregon's Rose Festival have become an expected event for representatives from the Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival. 
While volunteering to flower the floats, Elaine Cramer invited the people of Portland to come to Canada's first all floral parade and 2nd Annual Hydrangea Festival 
in August 1999.

 
HISTORY AND ACTIVITIES
 IN 1998
Earth Day with the Hydrangea Blossom Festival
Spring 1998
Donations of over 100 mature hydrangea shrubs were given by CN Railway and their employees to Surrey City Parks and the Bear Creek Train area in the spring of 1998 to help celebrate the Hydrangea Blossom Festival.  The CNR Employees and their families took part in a full day of planting these hydrangea shrubs for all to enjoy. 

1st Annual Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival
August 7th & 8th, 1998
Spectacular west coast douglas fir trees and bright, sunny weather gave the First Annual Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival a beautiful, natural setting in White Rock's Centennial Park to begin celebrations.  South Surrey's Semiahmoo Mall hosted the first events of hydrangea flower displays and a tribute to Terry Fox's work in raising funding for Cancer Research.  Terry's brother, Fred Fox was in attendance, along with Gordon Hogg, M.P. for S. Surrey-White Rock, and Doug McLean, city hall representative and councillor from White Rock. 

Many family activities took place, including hot air balloon rides, sports, food bank fund raising, arts, crafts, flower displays, the park filled with seating and tables created with hand made cedar furniture, and volunteers of all ages giving instructions on how to propagate hydrangeas. Gifts of hydrangea flowers were shared with participants, along with many taking home potential shrubs and flower stems for propagation.  Thanks to the City of White Rock and White Rock Copy and Print for contributing to and encouraging this first event, along with many sponsors giving in-kind donations. 

Surrey Compost Education-Hydrangea Festival's "Fall Cutting and
Propagation Event"
Oct. 3rd, 1998
This event originated at Kwantlen University College Compost Education Centre in Surrey, B.C.  Hundreds of specially chosen hydrangea shrubs were shared with participants and many traded their own contributed shrub branches for others to grow too.  All age groups came rain or shine, and left with potted hydrangea stems. Thanks to Surrey Parks Environmental Programs Department working in partnership with the Surrey Hydrangea Festival on this project. 

Surrey's Fall Environmental Extravaganza
October 1998
This event comprised of over 20 various partner groups including the Surrey Hydrangea Festival all gathering together at Bear Creek Park.  Our area was very busy all day with all age groups taking part in propagating their own hydrangea shrubs and taking these plants home.  Thanks to Surrey Parks, Recreation and Culture for this partnership. 
 
Denver, Colorado's International Festivals & Events Association Convention
Fall 1998
Elaine Cramer represented the Surrey, White Rock Hydrangea Festival as a delegate to the convention in the Fall of 1998.  She is studying to gain accreditation as a "Certified Festival Executive" and is in the last 1/4 of requirements needed through IFEA's Purdue University Program. Networking with top international festival mentors was inspiring and educational, along with positive contacts in television, promotions, and high calibre media people.

HISTORY AND ACTIVITIES
 1997
Surrey, White Rock Hydrangea Festival joined the 1997 Corporate Family of the Greater Vancouver Open (GVO) Golf Tournament
August 18th - 24th, 1997 
This event took place at Northview's Public Golf Course in Surrey, B.C. as part of the GVO Charity Project.  As a new organization of volunteers, the Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival workers decorated all the GVO tents, Northview's Club House dining rooms, shops, banquet halls, outdoor party areas, and created the first all-floral GVO/PGA floating design and logo for the 18th hole pond area. Volunteers throughout the Greater Vancouver area gave their time, expertise, and hydrangea flower contributions, and some Washington State volunteers also joined in on the floral decorating.  In return, the Hydrangea Festival received a booth valued at $4,000.00 in the GVO Expo tent to promote our Festival Organization and solicit volunteers for future events. Thanks to many "In-kind Sponsors" throughout the Greater Vancouver area. 

International Festivals & Events Association Membership Committee 
August 22nd, 1997
The IFEA Membership Committee unanimously approved the Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival as a new member. The goal is to communicate with our peers and to make every effort to attend professional development programs at conventions and seminars in order to become a more complete professional.  Over 2000 members are part of the IFEA from all over the world; making this an ideal networking organization for our festival members.
International Festivals & Events Association, Foundation Scholarships
August 29th, 1997
Two IFEA Scholarships were awarded to two Surrey Hydrangea Blossom Festival members on August 29th, 1997.  The IFEA Foundation Scholarship Committee promotes these awards to cover registration fees to further professional development studies at International Conventions and Seminars put on by the IFEA.  Both Elaine Cramer and Esther George travelled to Montreal, Quebec to attend studies as "New Professionals" and to further studies at the 42nd Annual IFEA Convention and Expo Trade Show.  Elaine Cramer is close to completing further studies to become a "Certified Festival Executive" through the IFEA's Purdue University Program in 1999.
Email Elaine Cramer

"We have the unique and different kinds of qualities within our festival
and population, to welcome the rest of the world to Surrey,
and all of B.C.
The Hydrangea Blossom Festival is promoting this beautiful city 
we want the rest of the world to know us."

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