Cucumber Festival grand marshals Kathy Hanson and Delores Brezina are pair of active volunteers and community members

By Cara L. Dempski

BOYCEVILLE — The 2017 Cucumber Festival grand parade held this coming Sunday afternoon might be one of the few times the celebration’s two main ambassadors get to sit down and relax.

Kathy Hanson and Delores Brezina, both of Boyceville, will have a busy weekend with daily parades, pickle contests, and general cucumber joy to spread as the 2017 Cucumber Festival “Cool as a Cucumber” grand marshals.

The duo are longtime residents of Boyceville who are active participants in multiple community volunteer opportunities and events. Hanson works several days per week at the local Cenex station and volunteers when she can, while Brezina spends her days visiting friends, volunteering at church or the local schools, and attending concerts, athletic events, and any other events that come up around town.

The two women have been friends for approximately 20 years, and are showing only slight signs of slowing down their respective activity levels.

And while neither knew for certain when they were interviewed what their duties as grand marshals would be, they both admitted they were honored to have been chosen and were looking forward to participating in the weekend’s events.

Kathy Hanson

Kathy Hanson was born and raised in Rice Lake, but moved to Boyceville 45 years ago. She and her former husband raised seven children, all of whom graduated as Bulldogs between 1983 and 1991.

“We had graduations every other year, with two graduating in 1983 and 1987,” Hanson explained. “The day before my youngest son graduated in 1991, I graduated from Chippewa Valley Tech.”

Hanson, who in the past has held up to four jobs at once, completed three different associate’s degrees – in data entry, accounting, and office assistance – in four-and-a-half years as a part-time student. She said she was working as a waitress at the time, but wanted to have an education beyond high school.

“It’s something they can’t take away from you, that education,” Hanson said.

The 2017 grand marshal’s experience raising seven children, attending school and working four jobs at one time definitely speaks to her ability to organize her time and her desire to stay active.

Those are two qualities she believes led to being chosen as one of the festival’s grand marshals this year.

Hanson indicated she has not been involved in Cucumber Festival other than working at the Sunday Pie and Ice Cream Social held at Trinity Lutheran Church, but has fond memories of the parades, and the coronation ceremonies previously held as part of the weekend.

She also said she usually holds a thrift sale that weekend, but not as an official part of Cucumber Festival. Hanson indicated she has always enjoyed watching the horse parade Friday evening.

These days, Hanson has pared her schedule down to volunteer activities at church, quilting, working three days per week at Cenex, and bingo. That’s a definite decrease in activity from working as a waitress, selling Avon products, serving as a church secretary, and raising children.

The Boyceville woman said she was pleased to have been asked to served as a grand marshal, but told the festival committee she did not want to be alone.

“I feel good about being asked,” Hanson said. “I told Tillie (Jamie Tilleson) I would do it, but I didn’t want to be alone.”

And how has her family reacted to the honor?

“I hadn’t even told my kids until a couple days ago,” Hanson said with a laugh. “My second-oldest boy called from Elk Mound and said, ‘What’s going on? I saw it on Facebook.’”

She admitted she has told more of her children about the honor, and everyone seems very happy for her. Hanson finally told her two youngest children, and then called her eldest son, who lives in southern Wisconsin, to tell him.

While Hanson does not yet know all her official duties for the weekend, she said she is looking forward to it, and riding in the parade with Brezina.

Delores Brezina

Brezina has lived in Boyceville for almost all of her nearly 91 years of life.

The exceptions are when she and her husband lived in South Dakota for several months while he worked as part of a crew building a dam on the Missouri River, and when the young couple spent a few months working on a construction job in Chisholm, Minnesota.

“But we always came back here,” Brezina said. “It’s home.”

She has some happy memories of the festival.

During the interview, Brezina displayed a newspaper clipping from 1963 where her two daughters are pictured marching in the Cucumber Festival kiddie parade as drum majorettes. She also talked about the M.A. Gedney Pickle Station located in Boyceville during the 1960s.

Delores Brezina graduated from Boyceville High School in 1944, and went to work not long after at a New Richmond factory charged with producing k-rations for soldiers fighting overseas in World War II. She estimates she worked there for 15 months, before accepting a position with an insurance agency in Boyceville.

Brezina worked there for five years, and was married in 1950. She spent many of her adult years as a stay-at-home mother, but indicated she worked at the creamery for a short while, then served as an assistant to the village clerk before taking over as village clerk in the 1960s.

In 1971, Brezina accepted a position as a teachers’ aide with the Boyceville school district, and later became the elementary and junior high school secretary. She retired from the position in 1998, but still keeps in contact with the schools.

“I still have a little connection,” she explained. “A friend and I go over when our newsletter comes out every three months, and we get that ready for mailing.”

When Brezina is not volunteering at church as part of the quilting group, or singing in the choir or as a soloist at services and special events, she likes to attend local sporting events, see plays and concerts, and visit with old friends and family members.

And those activities fall on the days when she is not road-tripping to Reedsburg to visit with one of her two daughters, shopping in Menomonie with a friend, visiting friends residing in assisted living facilities, or attending events at the Mabel Tainter theater in Menomonie.

Brezina said she is glad to be a part of Cucumber Festival’s unique history. She recalls a time when children and teenagers could earn money picking cucumbers and hauling them to the Gedney station.

Nowadays, her favorite part of the three-day celebration is seeing familiar faces back in town to spend time with friends and family.

“That’s really the best part, I think,” she explained.

When Brezina was asked what she thought led festival organizers to ask her to be a grand marshal, she did not hesitate with her answer.

“I’ve been around longer than a lot of people in town, and I’m community-minded,” Brezina said. “I’m interested in my school, and I’m interested in the community. I’d still go see basketball games during the winter, but I’m not sure I want to go out in the cold and maybe slip and fall on some ice.”

The 90-year-old Boyceville woman said she initially told Tilleson she would have to think about being one of this year’s two grand marshals. After a conversation with her two daughters, both of whom encouraged her to accept, Brezina let Tilleson know she would be happy to be involved.

The 2017 Cucumber Festival kicks off Friday evening with a quilt show, the “Aint’ No One Horse Town” parade, live music, and a kids activity. Anyone with questions should contact Jamie Tilleson at 715-607-0498.