MONROE - Del Heins and Jim Bruce, both of Monroe, began a friendship 50 years ago, brought about by their willingness to answer a call to volunteer their talents and hard work for the success of Green County Cheese Days.
They stayed involved, volunteering year after year as many others have, they said, because the spirit of the community for the event draws them, and the returning volunteers are what make the festival committee so special.
Today, their names are synonymous with spirit and friendship and with music and publicity.
Representing togetherness through friendship, Heins and Bruce are the 2014 Cheese Days parade marshals, and in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Cheese Days, they are together honoring the persistent, tireless spirit of volunteerism that marks the event, the community and the bond that forged their friendship.
"It's an honor to be Parade Marshal, and especially being able to do this with my friend, Del," Bruce said.
"I feel the same way," Heins said.
Both men were recruited initially by Cheese Days committee members in the mid-1960s - Heins for his entertainment with the accordion and Bruce for his publicity and salesmanship.
In addition to their many, early years of Cheese Days work, they continued with their full-time professions and side jobs, and raised their families. But a call for Cheese Days help is never turned down, the men said.
A lot of time goes into preparing the event, Heins noted, not to mention Cheese Days buttons and cream puff sales to raise some of the necessary funds.
The two young men were "groomed" by committee members, said Bruce, and eventually chosen in 1974 to be co-chairmen of the 1976 Cheese Days festival committee "supported by hundreds of volunteers." As chairmen, they were entrusted with the event's traditions and history.
Cheese Days was started by businessmen in 1914, as a special day set aside for Swiss, cheese and community.
"They couldn't even imagine what they had started," Bruce said.
Cheese Days is a family festival, and there are "few left in the country today of such major scope," he added.
"You can't put into words to describe it," Heins said. "You just have to see it to believe it."
The original benchmark has been enhanced and is growing, Bruce said, with the festival committee "keeping true to the concept" of those who started the event.
"The 100th anniversary is an opportunity to see the original concept exploding," he said.
"It's still going in the right direction," Heins said.
Memories of Cheese Days gone by abound for Heins and Bruce, and many of the elements are the same at each event. But 1976, the bicentennial year of the United States, was a little special.
Cheese Days brought in a hand-made, miniature replica of the White House and its furnishings for display at United Telephone Company, just off the Square. The replica was on tour in major cities nationally, but because its creator, John Zweifel, had family ties to Monroe, Heins and Bruce were able to secure its one and only small community appearance at Cheese Days that year. School children from the surrounding area were bussed in to see the display, they recalled.
Pam Wells-Wyss and Janice Wettach-Everson were the Cheese Days Queens. Bruce and Heins said those women promoted Cheese Days at every village's hometown Bicentennial parade in the area. It was also the year Wettach noticed Dennis Everson without a commemorative Cheese Days button and made sure he got one pinned to his shirt. By the following Cheese Days festival, they were engaged to be married.
Visitors could tour Chalet Cheese Factory and take home tea towels, beanies, buttons, coins and wooden Swiss dollars as souvenirs.
There was no Prince or Princess in 1976; those places of honor were created in 1982.
They stayed involved, volunteering year after year as many others have, they said, because the spirit of the community for the event draws them, and the returning volunteers are what make the festival committee so special.
Today, their names are synonymous with spirit and friendship and with music and publicity.
Representing togetherness through friendship, Heins and Bruce are the 2014 Cheese Days parade marshals, and in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Cheese Days, they are together honoring the persistent, tireless spirit of volunteerism that marks the event, the community and the bond that forged their friendship.
"It's an honor to be Parade Marshal, and especially being able to do this with my friend, Del," Bruce said.
"I feel the same way," Heins said.
Both men were recruited initially by Cheese Days committee members in the mid-1960s - Heins for his entertainment with the accordion and Bruce for his publicity and salesmanship.
In addition to their many, early years of Cheese Days work, they continued with their full-time professions and side jobs, and raised their families. But a call for Cheese Days help is never turned down, the men said.
A lot of time goes into preparing the event, Heins noted, not to mention Cheese Days buttons and cream puff sales to raise some of the necessary funds.
The two young men were "groomed" by committee members, said Bruce, and eventually chosen in 1974 to be co-chairmen of the 1976 Cheese Days festival committee "supported by hundreds of volunteers." As chairmen, they were entrusted with the event's traditions and history.
Cheese Days was started by businessmen in 1914, as a special day set aside for Swiss, cheese and community.
"They couldn't even imagine what they had started," Bruce said.
Cheese Days is a family festival, and there are "few left in the country today of such major scope," he added.
"You can't put into words to describe it," Heins said. "You just have to see it to believe it."
The original benchmark has been enhanced and is growing, Bruce said, with the festival committee "keeping true to the concept" of those who started the event.
"The 100th anniversary is an opportunity to see the original concept exploding," he said.
"It's still going in the right direction," Heins said.
Memories of Cheese Days gone by abound for Heins and Bruce, and many of the elements are the same at each event. But 1976, the bicentennial year of the United States, was a little special.
Cheese Days brought in a hand-made, miniature replica of the White House and its furnishings for display at United Telephone Company, just off the Square. The replica was on tour in major cities nationally, but because its creator, John Zweifel, had family ties to Monroe, Heins and Bruce were able to secure its one and only small community appearance at Cheese Days that year. School children from the surrounding area were bussed in to see the display, they recalled.
Pam Wells-Wyss and Janice Wettach-Everson were the Cheese Days Queens. Bruce and Heins said those women promoted Cheese Days at every village's hometown Bicentennial parade in the area. It was also the year Wettach noticed Dennis Everson without a commemorative Cheese Days button and made sure he got one pinned to his shirt. By the following Cheese Days festival, they were engaged to be married.
Visitors could tour Chalet Cheese Factory and take home tea towels, beanies, buttons, coins and wooden Swiss dollars as souvenirs.
There was no Prince or Princess in 1976; those places of honor were created in 1982.