Fleet of Flowers sails May 26, 2008
The 63rd Annual Depoe Bay Fleet of Flowers will take place at 11 a.m. on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, on the bayfront at Depoe Bay harbor.
Following a brief ceremony, participants will board the flower-bedecked vessels of the local fleet of fishing and whale watching boats waiting at the docks. The boats pass under the Depoe Bay bridge and head for the open ocean, where the flowers from all the boats are cast upon the water in memory of the men and women of the Armed Forces who have given their lives in the service of freedom, and of those who have lost their lives at sea.
Typically, hundreds of people line the bridge and the town’s sea wall to watch the ceremony.
Crew members from the Depoe Bay Coast Guard Station and volunteer and career firefighters from the Depoe Bay Fire District participate in the event. Leading up to the Fleet of Flowers, volunteers venture into the woods to cut greens, while others donate many hours in the week prior to the event, making more than 3,000 wreaths and bouquets which will festoon the boats.
The event is sponsored by the Fleet of Flowers Committee and the Depoe Bay Chamber of Commerce. For more information, or to request a wreath for a loved one, call the Chamber office at 541-765-2889. Information is also available at fleetofflowers.com.
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| A dedicated group of volunteers is busy before the Fleet of Flowers, sailing on Memorial Day, preparing flowers to remember loved ones and those lost at sea or in the service of the United States. OCT photo. |
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Fleet of Flowers volunteers take a bough
Or a few thousand boughs, as cedar and flowers tie Depoe Bay community together
By Niki Price
Oregon Coast Today
File Story.
The calla lilies are blooming late this year, and Dorinda Goddard is a little worried.
Goddard is the head of the Depoe Bay Fleet of Flowers committee, a group of hard-working volunteers now in their last week of preparations for the 62nd annual Memorial Day event. On Monday, at least 20 boats will be decorated with hand-tied swags of cedar and cut flowers. They’ll sail in procession under a flower-bedecked Depoe Bay bridge and out to sea. Within sight of the sea wall, the passengers and crew will lay flowers and wreaths into the Pacific in honor of loved ones lost.
In order to fill this gigantic order, at least 3,000 hand-tied swags for the boats plus all the public space decoration, the FOF committee needs all the flowers they can get. They buy as many daisies, mums, carnations, baby’s breath, purple statis and roses that they can afford, Goddard said. For the rest, they count on donations from private gardens, including rhododendron blossoms by the bushel, and big, showy calla lilies.
The late arrival of these lilies is worrisome, because these white flowers usually cover the 6-foot tall anchor sign that hangs from the bridge.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there aren’t many calla lilies blooming right now. If you have some, bring them to the Depoe Bay Community Center on Saturday or Sunday,” Goddard said.
But even if you don’t have any extra lilies, the community center is still the place to be this weekend. The assembly process begins each year on the Tuesday before Memorial Day, when the first cedar bough cutters head for the woods east of town.
They bring back truckloads of greenery, which a small cadre of workers ties into swags with biodegradable cotton string.
The community center building, 220 Bay Street, is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day from Wednesday through Sunday before the Fleet of Flowers event. Volunteers come and go through the week, Goddard said, so she never has an exact count. As the big day gets closer, the small center begins to fill up with busy people, food donated by local restaurants, florist’s buckets and, of course, thousands of cedar-backed flower arrangements.
“I bet at least 100 people show up at various times on Saturday and Sunday. That’s the fun part, tying the flowers on, and people from all over plan their vacations so that they can be here. I’ve met people from all over the world, who come here just for Fleet of Flowers,” Goddard said.
Year-round volunteers like Jim King provide the infrastructure to make the work party more efficient. King built A-frame racks to hold the thousands of arrangements in the community center, and is now in charge of the “Fleet of Flowers” bridge sign, chicken wire hoop and anchor sign.
“Jim has special ropes that are marked and tied to go into each one of the eye bolts to hang that sign,” Goddard said. “After the FOF, it goes home with him. He repaints the frame, reworks the chicken wire and stores it at his house all through the year. Jim King is my hero.”
Early Monday, the day of the event, Goddard will oversee the distribution of the finished swags to the participating commercial, charter and Coast Guard vessels. These boxes also include wreaths and other arrangements that have been made in memory of a specific person, to be tossed into the Pacific (to request a wreath, fill out a card at the community center or chamber by Sunday afternoon). By 11 a.m., the flowers are attached to the boats, the public dock is filled with people and the solemn ceremony begins. When the decorated boats head out to sea, with thousands of quiet people looking on, members of the FOF committee feel a sense of pride.
“This whole thing is created by volunteers, and a lot of giving from a lot of people. We have one fund-raiser a year — the fish and chips dinner at the Spouting Horn, which pays for the wholesale flowers. Everything and everybody else is by donation, including the musicians and the sound system,” Goddard said.
To volunteer, come to the community center anytime on Friday, Saturday or Sunday before Memorial Day. They’ll take donations — cash, checks, even calla lilies — there, too.
The Fleet of Flowers committee also takes donations through the Depoe Bay Chamber of Commerce (541-765-2889), or through PayPal on their Web site, www.fleetofflowers.org.
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