HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – Despite the Flint Water Crisis and the financial troubles of Detroit Public Schools, Rick Snyder will still maintain an annual tradition of Michigan’s Governor.
For the sixth time in his six years in office, Mr. Snyder will attend the Tulip Time Festival Luncheon as the featured speaker on Wednesday, May 11. The 11 AM function inside Hope College’s DeVos Fieldhouse should also feature comments from Festival Executive Director Gwen Auwerda and Holland Mayor Nancy DeBoer.
In past years, the Governor not only spoke at the luncheon, but he and his family afterward would adorn traditional Dutch costume and participate in the Volksparade down 8th Street in downtown Holland. Mr. Snyder skipped that stroll in 2015 due to recoving from surgery earlier in the winter, and it was not immediately disclosed by festival officials whether he would be walking this spring.
Both traditions were begun during the G. Mennen Williams tenure over 50 years ago, but the “Governor’s Luncheon” was rebranded in 2007 after Jennifer Granholm skipped five of the eight affairs during her two terms in the 2000’s for various reasons.
Tickets for the luncheon, priced at $50 each, are still available through the festival’s website.
