A tulip blooming ceremony held special importance for Clearview Mayor Chris Vanderkruys. He baked up a huge batch of oliebollen – essentially mini Dutchie doughnuts – for the entire crowd gathered at Fountain Park to celebrate a long lasting friendship between Canada and the Netherlands. Vanderkruys, decked out in an orange shirt and wooden shoes, is the son of a Dutch immigrant.
The township hosted a street party May 13 to celebrate the blooming of the tulip bulbs acquired last fall through a program to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Holland at the end of the Second World War. Both Clearview Township and Stayner Collegiate Institute were successful in applying for a portion of 100,000 tulip bulbs donated by Prince Edward Island based Veseys and distributed through the Canadian Garden Council.
SCI held a ceremony in October when local and school board dignitaries helped students plant the bulbs in the front garden at the school. The bulbs in the township garden were planted by the Stayner Garden Club, who joined in the celebration, along with MPP Jim Wilson, members of council, members of the Legions in Clearview, representatives from Base Borden, SCI staff and students and the public.
To mark the occasion, SCI Grade 11 and 12 art students also painted wooden shoes that will be sent to various local agencies, including the libraries, town hall, the Legions and the Canadian embassy in Holland and the Dutch embassy in Ottawa.
SCI also collaborated with Grade 6-8 students at Byng Public School and Clearview Meadows Elementary School for a community clean-up, as a token of friendship to their neighbours.
In 1945 the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulips to Ottawa to thank Canadians for harbouring Princess Juliana and her daughters during the war. Juliana gave birth to Princess Margriet at the hospital in Ottawa in 1943 and in 1946 sent another 20,500 bulbs with a pledge to send another 10,000 each year during her lifetime. The Canadian Tulip Festival is held in Ottawa each May in celebration of these gifts.