After four long years, it’s time to let the Gouda times roll! With the Green County Cheese Days Festival less than two months away, it’s time to ask for volunteers and share a few updates.
As always, it takes a village to put this event together. A quick count a few years back showed that more than 500 people help out to make the festival happen. That’s not even counting all the volunteers working for separate causes like the Monroe Optimists frying cheese curds or Green County Ag Chest dairy queens putting that special swirl on the soft serve ice cream cones.
You might not realize that Cheese Days has a twelve-member board of directors who meet monthly, and more than thirty different committee and activity chairpersons who are working behind the scenes on everything from the parade planning to sponsor recruiting to retail merchandising.
New this year is a new way to organize the volunteer schedules. We’re using SignUp Genius, which somewhat automates the sign up and reminder process. To see the job descriptions and shifts available, go to cheesedays.com and click on the volunteer tab. It’s organized by Beer Stand, Retail Tent, Hospitality Tent, Dining Tent, and Parade. If signing up online isn’t your thing, give us a call at the Cheese Days office at 608.325.7771. If you’ve already signed up, please know we truly appreciate your willingness to help.
Moving on to updates; here are some highlights:
Wedgie the Cheese Days mascot is turning ten years old, and rumor has it that there will be a little party. Wedgie is working on the guest list…
Food Artist Nancy Baker (sponsored by Big Radio) will be carving a big wheel of award-winning Grand Cru from Emmi Roth, and some big blocks of cheddar sourced from Alpine Slicing and Cheese Conversion. Find Nancy at work near the Cheese Tent.
On the entertainment schedule: DJ Stacy Harbaugh will spin vintage polka records in the Colony Brands Hospitality Tent, the Screamin’ Cucumbers are set to entertain on the main stage on Saturday night, and the UW Marching Band has Cheese Days penciled in for a “5th Quarter” celebration downtown after The Swiss Colony Cheese Days Parade on Sunday.
A new feature in this year’s parade will be “Classic Wheels of Cheese Days Yesteryear”, showcasing vintage cars and trucks from model years 1980 and earlier — but limited to specific years that the festival took place. As of publication time, we’re still looking for vehicles from 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1923, 1928, 1935, 1970, and 1980.
Saturdays’ Cow Milking Contest is moooving out to the Green County Fairgrounds. A shuttle will run back and forth.
Kids’ Street will again be sponsored by TDS, and we’d like to thank the Green County YMCA for scheduling, presenting, and managing the activities and entertainers for the day. On the lineup are a dunk tank, clowns and jugglers, bubble stations, drumlines, roving entertainers, dance demos, and more.
We’re already doing some steady business with our branded Cheese Days merchandise, and it’s fun to see so many people wearing their 2022 t-shirts and buttons. New this year is a line of “Swiss Chick” merchandise (shirts, aprons, magnets and key chains) in honor of our very own Swiss Chicks — Martha Bernet and Marian Kundert. We also have shirts sized for the entire family, hats and caps, stoneware mason jars (a collector favorite — fourth in the series), jewelry, koozies, Wedgie bobble heads, and more.
Throughout the month of August, the Cheese Days store is open Tuesday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday Noon to 3 p.m., and Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The store is located in the lower level of the Historic Green County Courthouse in downtown Monroe. Due to ongoing renovations, the best door to use is the handicap accessible entrance on the southeast corner. Go to cheesedays.com if you’d like to shop online.
— Noreen Rueckert is director for Green County Tourism and Green County Cheese Days, and helps out with Main Street Monroe’s Concerts on the Square. Her favorite cheese is rumored to be Feta. She has the best office in the county — overlooking Monroe’s Square from the tower of the Historic Green County Courthouse. She dabbles in photography and graphic design, adores cats and iced coffee, and secretly loves the Cheese Days Song.
