Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Will Corcoran hugs Sonia Bergquist as Keith Johnson reads an award in honor of her late husband A. Chris Bergquist who founded Festival Ironwood, during the opening ceremony of the 2021 festival at Depot Park Thursday evening.
By CHARITY SMITH
Ironwood - Festival Ironwood kicked off at Depot Park on Thursday with a tribute to one of its founding members, A. Chris Bergquist, who died last year from COVID-19.
After the presentation of colors by the American Legion Post 5, and the singing of the national anthem, festival chairs Keith Johnson and Will Corcoran presented Bergquist's widow, Sonia, with a plaque in honor of her husband's service to the festival.
"With Great appreciation, we honor A. Chris Bergquist as a founding member of Festival Ironwood, for his many years of service and dedication. His unwavering support and unrelenting guidance will be missed by all that served alongside him," Johnson read from the plaque.
Sonia cried as she accepted the plaque from Johnson, who also had tears in his eyes. Chris died March 23, 2020. He was the first local person to die of COVID, Sonia told the Daily Globe.
Sonia said that she and her husband started the festival 30 years ago as the Heritage Dance, and they preferred to stay under the radar over the years.
"I didn't know they were going to do this or I would have stayed home," Sonia said with laugh.
She said her husband always said, "You can't do anything without a backup crew and they deserve as much credit as the ones that do it." So she said she lives by the motto as well, saying it goes along with "It takes a village to raise a child." You need lots of behind the scenes people to create a festival. "You couldn't do all this alone," said Sonia. "It was really nice," she added of the tribute.
After the opening ceremonies, Johnson gave the order to release the ducks and the festival began. Children lined up to pick a duck from a large silver bin filled with thousands of rubber ducks, numbered for a prize, floating in water.
The prize line was just as long as the duck picking line Thursday night, if not longer.
Organizations offered concessions to support their causes including HOPE animal shelter, and the Ironwood Youth Softball Team, and the American Legion; while folks danced under the blue and white tent to polka music.
