Phyllis Dowsett Oral History

Phyllis Dowsett

The wineries have formed an association, [the] “Southwest Michigan Wine Trail”. They have a nice brochure, and they have signage. If one winery is close to another winery, they put a sign of their competitor and the directions [to] the competitor. That is so fabulous because they really are competitors and the more volume you produce, it benefits everyone. Each one of them has a very unique operation.

The Blossom Time Festival is [a] very challenging and interesting job because you are working with as many as thirty-five communities in southwestern Michigan . It brings all the communities together. It does have an economic impact on the area. Blossom Time is embedded here as far as the residents [who] live here. Grandma may have been in a queen contest or ridden on a float, so she encourages [her] granddaughter to participate. We don’t have celebrities in the parades now because they were so expensive. We’ve had sports stars like Mickey Mantle. We’ve had Michael Landon and Grandpa Walton, from the Walton Family. It was a treat for people. Sometimes, we had soap opera people come in, and we had the little old lady who made millions from Wendy’s commercials and she would always say, “Where’s the beef?” We had to actually use security to keep people back from her cause she was a popular little old lady.

In the past we would put our blankets out the night before, then the City decided you can’t do that. I buy reserved seats, I want front row. This year, it was rainy. I sent my husband down early to mark off our seats. It was amazing the crowd that turned out even though it was rainy. It was still a good parade.

When you are here in Southwest Michigan during the period when the blossoms are in bloom, it is one of the most beautiful sites.

1985 [was] the first Blossom Time [Festival] planning meeting. The problem was no money. Southwestern Michigan commission applied for a grant, and we were awarded the last grant that was given out. It was an odd number like $10,233.15. It was to clean the pot out. We then thought we could survive on selling memberships and advertising. After the first year of using up the grant money, it looked like we were going to fold, and we decided that there was a real need to have a tourist organization to tell the outside world what was here for tourists. So we formed our own nonprofit organization with no money, and from the first three or four years we just barely got by. I did volunteer a lot of my time and, well actually – 1981, we did have a couple of other directors before I came in. I think we had eleven hundred [dollars] in the bank. The staff had just resigned, so I did work as a volunteer for awhile. But we initiated an assessment district, which means you can collect a two percent assessment from the hotels. So we went from no source of revenue to a pretty solid base. That brought us the money to build this visitors’ center. [It] was one of the first things we built. We moved in here in 1989.