We are accepting nominations for our 2022 Grand Marshal(s). All we ask for with nominations is that you submit their address and phone number along with a summary of the couple’s contribution to the Greenville area and specifically to the Danish Festival if they have been active in the event.
Nominations will be due June 15, 2022. Our Board of Directors will review nominations and make their decision after that.
Nominations will be due June 15, 2022. Our Board of Directors will review nominations and make their decision after that.
Meet our 2021 Grand Marshals: Bob and Susan Gould
Story Courtesy of Daily News Senior Staff Writer, Cory Smith
For 30 years, Susan and Bob Gould have made sure to circle a particular weekend on their calendar, making a commitment every August to an event they have come to love and embrace — the Danish Festival. Susan, in her role as the director of the Greenville High School Yellow Jacket Marching Band from 1991 until her retirement this year, has always considered it a point of pride to participate as her students entertain the crowd marching in the Grand Dansk Parade. Bob, in his role as a trumpet player with the Danish Festival Band and Flat River Big Band, has contributed his own musical talents to numerous parades and festival concerts over that same timeframe.
This year, the husband and wife will experience the festival from a different perspective, selected by the Danish Festival Board of Directors to serve as the grand marshals of the 57th annual Danish Festival (Aug. 19-22). According to Board President Andrea Krause, the selection of Susan and Bob was fitting, given how much they have contributed to the festival over the years.
“The Danish Festival grand marshals represent the best of our community. This year’s selection of Bob and Susan Gould fit this definition to a tee,” Krause said. “They have given their time and talent to better our community for many years. We are very happy to have them represent the Danish Festival this year as our grand marshals.” According to Danish Festival Executive Director Kristen Videan, the Goulds received multiple nominations for the honor. “They had more than one public nomination submitted to the Danish Festival, which mentioned how much Bob and Susan have always given back to the Greenville community,” she said. “Both of them have left their mark on our community and they have both touched countless lives over the years.”
For the Goulds, the recognition came as a complete surprise. “We’re just very honored,” Susan said. “Greenville has been so great to us and our family throughout our careers and our life here. It’s just nice to be able to represent the community and be a part of the parade. It’s fun to give back to a town that’s given so much to us.”
“I was pretty shocked by the announcement, I did not expect that at all and it’s pretty humbling, honestly,” Bob added. “Our involvement in the festival, we do that because we love to do it. It wasn’t like we wanted any accolades or anything like that. We just wanted to do a great job.”
While Susan and Bob reside in Cannon Township southeast of Rockford in Kent County, they said Greenville has always felt like home. Throughout her 30 years as director of the high school band and orchestra programs, Susan has educated thousands of students. When not waving a baton in front of those students, Susan continued to contribute to the Danish Festival City while keeping up on her performance skills as a member of both the Flat River Big Band and the Danish Festival Band, performing on alto saxophone and flute.
“Greenville is sort of our adopted hometown,” Susan said. “We grew up in different places — Bob in Detroit and me in a small town (Williamston) with a similar festival. My father was very civically-minded. He was grand marshal of that parade, citizen of the year, a volunteer fireman, he served on the township board, and that really instilled in me the importance of community events. The fact that Greenville had this beautiful Danish Festival that sort of mimicked what I really enjoyed as a child, I just latched right on to it.”
As Susan led her band and orchestra programs at Greenville High School, Bob, an award-winning broadcast journalist who spent the first half of his own 30-year career at WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids before becoming a professor of broadcast journalism at Michigan State University, has served as a key figure behind the scenes, assisting in any way Susan might have needed.
At the same time, with his involvement in the Flat River Big Band and Danish Festival Band, Bob said his love for Greenville took off from the moment he and Susan first became involved with the festival early in their careers.
We were welcomed so warmly here when Susan first started,” he said. “You talk about people like Keith and Jean Hudson, Bob and Ruth Hansen and Joel and Linda Van Houten — all former grand marshals — and they really welcomed us. They made us feel that Greenville was a home away from home. That meant a lot to us. We give back to the community because of all these wonderful people who have done so much for us over the years. There are so many great people who have been warm and welcoming to us, as if we were native Greenvillians.” After a few years of working and playing in Greenville, Bob said any decision to leave the community for other opportunities went out the window.
“We first came here as young pups. We were young and didn’t know what was going on with our futures,” he said. “We thought we might stay here a few years and move on, but two kids later, life has happened and we really found a home here. Susan has had such great success with her music programs and everyone has been so supportive and enthusiastic through all of these years.”
With the festival scheduled to occur in a traditional sense for the first time in two years amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the majority of events canceled last year, Susan said she is excited to once again see thousands of smiling faces on either side of the parade route of the Grand Dansk Parade.
“I’m excited that the parade is happening this year. I love the parade because I get to see so many former students, friends and family who come back for this weekend,” she said. “Now I get to do it one more time and I’m excited about that. We are so lucky in Greenville to have such a wonderful resource in this town with the festival and all of the local businesses that contribute. We’ve all missed that and we are desperate to reconnect. I think the festival is going to give people a really great opportunity to do that in a safe way, outdoors. I think it’s going to be a really wonderful weekend.”
Story Courtesy of Daily News Senior Staff Writer, Cory Smith
For 30 years, Susan and Bob Gould have made sure to circle a particular weekend on their calendar, making a commitment every August to an event they have come to love and embrace — the Danish Festival. Susan, in her role as the director of the Greenville High School Yellow Jacket Marching Band from 1991 until her retirement this year, has always considered it a point of pride to participate as her students entertain the crowd marching in the Grand Dansk Parade. Bob, in his role as a trumpet player with the Danish Festival Band and Flat River Big Band, has contributed his own musical talents to numerous parades and festival concerts over that same timeframe.
This year, the husband and wife will experience the festival from a different perspective, selected by the Danish Festival Board of Directors to serve as the grand marshals of the 57th annual Danish Festival (Aug. 19-22). According to Board President Andrea Krause, the selection of Susan and Bob was fitting, given how much they have contributed to the festival over the years.
“The Danish Festival grand marshals represent the best of our community. This year’s selection of Bob and Susan Gould fit this definition to a tee,” Krause said. “They have given their time and talent to better our community for many years. We are very happy to have them represent the Danish Festival this year as our grand marshals.” According to Danish Festival Executive Director Kristen Videan, the Goulds received multiple nominations for the honor. “They had more than one public nomination submitted to the Danish Festival, which mentioned how much Bob and Susan have always given back to the Greenville community,” she said. “Both of them have left their mark on our community and they have both touched countless lives over the years.”
For the Goulds, the recognition came as a complete surprise. “We’re just very honored,” Susan said. “Greenville has been so great to us and our family throughout our careers and our life here. It’s just nice to be able to represent the community and be a part of the parade. It’s fun to give back to a town that’s given so much to us.”
“I was pretty shocked by the announcement, I did not expect that at all and it’s pretty humbling, honestly,” Bob added. “Our involvement in the festival, we do that because we love to do it. It wasn’t like we wanted any accolades or anything like that. We just wanted to do a great job.”
While Susan and Bob reside in Cannon Township southeast of Rockford in Kent County, they said Greenville has always felt like home. Throughout her 30 years as director of the high school band and orchestra programs, Susan has educated thousands of students. When not waving a baton in front of those students, Susan continued to contribute to the Danish Festival City while keeping up on her performance skills as a member of both the Flat River Big Band and the Danish Festival Band, performing on alto saxophone and flute.
“Greenville is sort of our adopted hometown,” Susan said. “We grew up in different places — Bob in Detroit and me in a small town (Williamston) with a similar festival. My father was very civically-minded. He was grand marshal of that parade, citizen of the year, a volunteer fireman, he served on the township board, and that really instilled in me the importance of community events. The fact that Greenville had this beautiful Danish Festival that sort of mimicked what I really enjoyed as a child, I just latched right on to it.”
As Susan led her band and orchestra programs at Greenville High School, Bob, an award-winning broadcast journalist who spent the first half of his own 30-year career at WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids before becoming a professor of broadcast journalism at Michigan State University, has served as a key figure behind the scenes, assisting in any way Susan might have needed.
At the same time, with his involvement in the Flat River Big Band and Danish Festival Band, Bob said his love for Greenville took off from the moment he and Susan first became involved with the festival early in their careers.
We were welcomed so warmly here when Susan first started,” he said. “You talk about people like Keith and Jean Hudson, Bob and Ruth Hansen and Joel and Linda Van Houten — all former grand marshals — and they really welcomed us. They made us feel that Greenville was a home away from home. That meant a lot to us. We give back to the community because of all these wonderful people who have done so much for us over the years. There are so many great people who have been warm and welcoming to us, as if we were native Greenvillians.” After a few years of working and playing in Greenville, Bob said any decision to leave the community for other opportunities went out the window.
“We first came here as young pups. We were young and didn’t know what was going on with our futures,” he said. “We thought we might stay here a few years and move on, but two kids later, life has happened and we really found a home here. Susan has had such great success with her music programs and everyone has been so supportive and enthusiastic through all of these years.”
With the festival scheduled to occur in a traditional sense for the first time in two years amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the majority of events canceled last year, Susan said she is excited to once again see thousands of smiling faces on either side of the parade route of the Grand Dansk Parade.
“I’m excited that the parade is happening this year. I love the parade because I get to see so many former students, friends and family who come back for this weekend,” she said. “Now I get to do it one more time and I’m excited about that. We are so lucky in Greenville to have such a wonderful resource in this town with the festival and all of the local businesses that contribute. We’ve all missed that and we are desperate to reconnect. I think the festival is going to give people a really great opportunity to do that in a safe way, outdoors. I think it’s going to be a really wonderful weekend.”
