2011 GRANDÂ MARSHALS
The 2011 Danish Festival Board has selected Gerry and Paula Christiansen to be grand marshals of the annual celebration of Greenville’s Danish Heritage.
“It’s an honor to represent the city and the community,” said Gerry Christiansen. “It is new and it is still sinking in. We’re looking forward to it.”
Paula Christiansen shared her husband’s sentiment.
“I never envisioned myself in that position,” she said. “I think it will be especially fun for Gerry having that Danish heritage. I think, for me, that makes it more real.”
Proud grand marshals
The announcement of being the 2011 Danish Festival grand marshals came as a surprise to the Christiansens.
“We didn’t even know we were in the running,” Gerry Christiansen said. “We were a little stunned and surprised.”
In fact, Paula Christiansen thought her husband was pulling another one of his infamous practical jokes.
“I thought he was putting me on,” she said.
However, both are excited and pleased to be taking part in the 57-year-old festival.
“There is a lot of participation from the community,” Paula Christiansen said. “I think it does bring the community together.”
Danish heritage
Gerry Christiansen is a full-blooded Dane and he can prove it.
As avid genealogists, the Christiansens have traced the lineage of their family all the way back to Denmark. The couple spends a lot of time working on local Danish-laden history in cemeteries such as South and North Sidney cemeteries, as well as Little Denmark Cemetery.
“We’re still burying (my) descendents there,” Gerry Christiansen said. “A big part of my family is here.”
Although she is of Swiss and English descent, Paula Christiansen said she has embraced the Danish culture as her own. She is even learning Danish folk dancing, which she will showcase during the Danish Festival.
Locally born and raised
Both Christiansens were born and raised in the area. Gerry Christiansen is a life-long resident of Greenville while Paula Christiansen grew up in Belding. She moved to Greenville in 1966 and has been here ever since.
The couple married in 1969.
Gerry Christiansen is a retired computer programmer and systems analyst. He worked as the operations manager for the Computer Center service bureau and Steketee’s Department Stores and was the M.I.S. director for Eberhard Foods.
He also was a private computer consultant for 15 years.
Paula was employed as an accountant for Vining Sales and Admiral Petroleum.
Community involvement
The Christiansens are very active in the greater Greenville community.
They are involved with the Flat River Historical Society, as charter members of the North Sidney Church and Cemetery Historical Association and South Sidney Cemetery Association, are active in the Friends of the Flat River Community Library and participate in the Hyggelig Huddle, a Danish social club.
Paula Christiansen was the treasurer with the Flat River Historical Society and is the current treasurer of the South Sidney Cemetery Association. She also has served as the treasurer and president of the Baldwin Heights Elementary School PTO and served on the Greenville Zoning Board of Appeals.
She currently is member of Greenville’s Economic Development Corporation, which acts as the planning commission for the city’s industrial parks.
Gerry Christiansen served as the president and treasurer of the South Sidney Cemetery Association and is active in all the organizations he is involved with.
History buffs
Above all, both Christiansens consider themselves active history buffs.
As members of the North Sidney Church and Cemetery Historical Association and South Sidney Cemetery Association, they have spent countless hours researching and documenting the gravesites found within the cemeteries.
“We really enjoy it,” Paula Christiansen said. “It is interesting to see who these people were and where they came from.”
They have compiled a booklet about the Danish heritage and the history of the South Sidney Cemetery.
“There is a lot of interesting history with some of the Danish immigrants,” Gerry Christiansen said. “We’ve researched a lot of Danish families.”
They also wrote burial indexes for the South and North Sidney Cemeteries and Little Denmark Cemetery, as well as indexing and photographing a Danish cemetery in Ashland.
They both are become very engrossed in this work and enjoy the work.
“We’ve had fun collecting all of it,” Gerry Christiansen said. “We research a lot.”
They have taken active roles in preservation of cemetery grounds as well.
In addition, Gerry Christiansen is the Graves Registration Officer for Montcalm County for the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War and is the Montcalm County Coordinator for Michigan GenWeb, an Internet genealogy site. Of course, he credits his wife with assisting him with his work.
They are also focusing on documenting the Civil War veterans in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Greenville.
The Christiansens do not take these tasks lightly either. Sometimes the light will be on into the earliest parts of the morning.
“Sometimes we don’t get started until after midnight,” Paula Christiansen said. “We’re night owls.”
Danish Festival history
In addition to being this year’s Grand Marshals, they have played active roles in previous Danish Festivals.
“The last few years, we’ve been involved with (the displays) at the South Sidney Cemetery,” Gerry Christiansen said. “It’s a Danish church and a Danish cemetery.”
They both agreed that although the festivals have sustained themselves, they have changed over the years.
“A lot of the original (organizers) that were here 40 years ago are gone,” Gerry Christiansen said. “Some of the tradition went with them.”
The Christiansens would like to see the Danish Festival revert back to its roots in Danish Heritage. They would like to see more traditional activities and foods.
Paula Christiansen remembers the luncheon they used to have where there would be healthy helpings of Danish foods like open-faced sandwiches and sausages.
Yet, not all the traditional Danish food is for everyone.
“Some of the foods would’ve driven you from the house,” Gerry Christiansen said.
However, the Christiansens love aebleskiver most and are glad the treats still make an appearance during the festival. Aebleskivers are round dough balls made out of “pancake-like” batter, which are fried up, and “delicious.”
“We grew up with them,” Gerry Christiansen said. “If you were Danish you’d have at least one pan in the house to cook those in.”
However, do not call them “pancakes,” Gerry Christiansen warned, because they are not and to do so would offend the Danish palate.
One way or the other, the Christiansens are adamantly excited about being this years “face” of the Danish Festival.
So during that four-day period in August keep a look out for them because they will be just about everywhere and will be happy to talk Danske with anyone.
“It all sounds very interesting,” Gerry Christiansen said. “Wherever there is an event … we’re supposed to get around to it.”
The 2011 Danish Festival is held from Aug. 18 to 20. For more information on the Danish Festival, visit www.danishfestival.org or call (616) 754-6369.
