Pekin Marigold Festival

The Pekin Marigold Festival Committee is happy to announce Dale Sandrock as the 2018 Marigold Festival Grand Marshal. The Kiwanis Club of Pekin nominated Dale and made the surprise announcement at one of their weekly meetings. They wrote in their nomination that Dale “cares deeply for his community and is consistently doing what he can to make the world around him a better place.”  It has always been important to Dale to help others. It is no secret that he assists his neighbors by cutting grass and removing snow. After the North Pekin tornado, Dale spent many hours using his heavy equipment to clean up the area. He makes himself available to encourage friends and family and to provide advice and support. Dale sees the value in investing in the future and finding ways to enrich the youth. He & his wife, Lela, were host parents to foreign exchange students thru Youth For Understanding (YFU) and volunteered as area representatives for the YFU by interviewing families in...

The Pekin Marigold Festival proudly welcomes John Ratzenberger as our 2018 Guest Celebrity to help us celebrate the festival theme: “Cheers to Marigolds.” John will be joining us on Saturday and Sunday of the festival, September 8th and 9th. A multi-Emmy-nominated actor and accomplished screenwriter, director, producer and author, John Ratzenberger may be best known for playing mail carrier Cliff Clavin on the long-running NBC sitcom “Cheers.” Along with his eleven seasons on “Cheers”, John has worked in feature films, made appearances on numerous TV shows and commercials, but animation has been a natural home to John’s versatile vocal talents. He is the only actor to participate in every Pixar film, voicing the iconic characters of Mack the Truck, Hamm the Piggy Bank and his favorite, P.T. Flea. Due to John’s volume of film work, he is listed as the 6th most successful actor of all time in terms of box office receipts. John produced and starred in the Travel Channel documentary se...