The following is written by Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow:
Once again last Saturday, we celebrated a true Sumner tradition, the Daffodil Festival. While I enjoy memories of marching bands, antique trucks, floats and lots of flowers, I want to thank all the people who made this possible. The list is almost longer than the Sumner Marching Band.
There is the Daffodil Festival itself with its volunteers and princesses. They’re working hard to bring this long-time festival into a modern era. There’s also all the people who come to be in the parade. The Festival estimates that 5,000 people are involved somehow. They range from Seafair volunteers, who help organize the units and get them ready to go, to festivals from around Washington, British Columbia and Portland, to all our local groups, marching bands and even elected officials.
There are the volunteers, who give up evenings and weekends starting in February to plan and build our Sumner float, not to mention decorate it with 15,000 daffodils and other shrubbery the day before the parade. When the parade aired on KOMO4 this year, the announcers praised the creativity of the Sumner float crew! Even more volunteers ride, walk with and drive the float, braving wind, rain and even hail to keep it moving with a smile.
And there are the City staff: the Public Works crew who rent and place all the signs and barricades needed to shut down streets; the Police who are out en force to direct traffic and keep spectators safe; and the mechanics who keep the float running (that old Chevy engine may have come from my first car!).
It’s a lot of work from a lot of people, but riding down Main Street in the old Kenworth fire truck, I can tell you that the smiles and the excitement are shared by all ages when the parade goes through town. Just one more reminder that it’s a tradition worth keeping and what makes Sumner special.
P.S. By the way, Sumner’s float won the Daffodilian Award this year for best use of daffodils.
