This week was supposed to be the favorite of many in Pella, before COVID-19 cancelled the 2020 Tulip Time celebration.

All this week on 92.1 KRLS, we will still celebrate some of the aspects of the festival, including five high school seniors who lost out on the chance to showcase the best Pella has to offer.

Tulip Queen Hanna Kendall has been working with her court to make the most of the spring season, participating in car parades and tulip deliveries to retirement homes. Just before the end of spring activities, Kendall was able to earn Individual All-State Speech recognition in a special Tulip City-only festival held after the original state contest hosted by the Iowa High School Speech Association.

“Speech is my favorite activity, it’s so important to me, and to be able to not only fit in that one last performance, but watch other students from our community do the same — that meant so much,” she says. “And then to be recognized for all the hard work that we put in was just an amazing feeling and I’m so glad that I could end my senior year with a bang.”

She will be attending UNI this fall to study English Education with a minor in theater. Hear more from the 2020 Tulip Queen and Royal Court on today’s Let’s Talk Pella, and hear special features, including some from past Tulip Time Festivals on the program all this week on 92.1 KRLS.