When visiting the festival, make time to see the new Florida Strawberry Festival History Museum and Queens Exhibit in the historic Hull Armory Building.
Dodie White and Marsha Passmore are sisters and co-chairs of the Florida Strawberry Festival Queens’ Exhibit which now has turned into a history museum. “We started in 2014 after we were asked by both the then Chairman of the Board and the President, Sandee Sytsma, and Paul Davis, if we would take over the queens’ exhibit,” White said. “It was funny because they said, ‘You have to say yes because if you say no, we don’t have a plan B,’ so we thought about it and prayed about it because we knew we would reach the right decision since prayer is so important. So, a few days later, we told both of them we would be honored to take over the exhibit.”
The sisters love the queens’ exhibit and love the Strawberry Festival. “We love the royalty aspect of the exhibit, and it has been a labor of love for the past ten years,” White said. “We are the first non-queens to chair the exhibit and we were honored we were even asked to become chairs for the exhibit.”
In 2019, the sisters approached the festival about moving the exhibit from the Neighborhood Village. “Not that it wasn’t a nice location to be in at the festival,” Passmore said. “We just felt the area wasn’t royal enough for the queens’ exhibit. “During the festival, it was mixed in with all the handmade crafts, jellies, and other things that are so much a part of the festival, that they needed to be separated and we felt royalty didn’t fit into that area.”
Both sisters were appreciative of the building where the exhibit was located, but they knew the exhibit needed a little something more. “The Neighborhood Village is a fabulous building and they had built an amazing display for us; however, the building is as far East as you can go and still be on the fairgrounds,” White said. “We felt the queens’ exhibit should be more centrally located on the fairgrounds.”
The sisters went to Paul Davis, who at the time was the president of the festival, to talk about moving the exhibit. Then the 2020 COVID pandemic hit. “We were able to get through the festival and we had a very successful year, but the very next week, the whole world shut down,” Passmore said. “For 2020 and 2021 we were just happy to have the festival and have the place for the queens’ exhibit. We didn’t bring up the move again until 2022. This past 2023 festival, Paul Davis retired, and Kyle Robinson became the new festival president and we talked to Kyle about the exhibit being moved.”
The sisters worked with Robinson and the festival’s board President, Danny Coton to find a new home for the queens’ exhibit. After much discussion, Coton recommended, and the board agreed, to build a history center around the queens’ exhibit and include all the other facets of the festival. “It will be a history museum of the festival,” White said. “It’s a history center built around the queens’ exhibit.”
When the Strawberry Festival ended last March, the process of building and preparing the museum for the 2024 Strawberry Festival began. “The museum will be housed in the Milton E. Hull Armory building, the rock building located on the fairground,” Passmore said. “The building has been on the fairground for many years and once served as the festival’s offices.”
The sisters cannot wait for the community to see the new museum. “One of the first things we made sure of is that the current Strawberry Festival Queen’s dress will be on display at the museum during the festival,” White said. “As soon as the queen is announced we always tell them we need your dress for the exhibit. We get really excited about that and we already have the 2024 queen’s dress for the museum.”
The contents of the new museum is top secret. No one, other than the builders of the museum, has seen it. Many past queens have come to the sisters asking about the new museum and the sisters have told them, “You’ll have to wait and see!”
“There is going to be a total wow factor for people when they walk into the exhibit this year,” Passmore said.
