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Swiss singing, Swiss heritage, and Swiss roots. Bert Digman and Sherry Anderegg share a common love of all things Swiss. Cheese Days is proud to announce that this pair of longtime friends will serve as marshals for The Swiss Colony Cheese Days Parade in 2018.

Cheese Days has been part Bert Digman's life since childhood. The daughter of Ben and Frieda (Schenkel) Jenny, she grew up on a 200-acre dairy farm near Monroe.

"My dad was always in the Cheese Days parade," says Bert. "He loved parades, and liked to joke that if you saw a cow walk by – that was a parade. He couldn't wait from one Cheese Days 'til the next." Bert fondly remembers a Holstein from their herd named Dolly, who she would show at the fair. "She had one speed, and it was slow!" says Bert. Dolly was also the parade cow, and Bert's father Ben would "cobble something together" and come up with a theme and Dolly was hitched up to pull a two-wheeled cart. Back in 1940, Bert, then a teenager, borrowed a fancy dress from her aunt and helped distribute sample boxes of cheese and crackers to the crowds at the festival.

Bert got more involved with Cheese Days back in the 1980's when Sherry Anderegg recruited her to be on the retail committee, which she went on to co-chairs for many years. Bert also took part in the "bar hopping group" made up of revelers from the Cheese Days committee who would make the rounds to area bars and restaurants – in advance, to promote the festival. Bert worked at various places in the community – the bank, the clinic, and Bruni Miller – where she did just about everything from bookkeeping to sales.

Sherry Anderegg, daughter of Ted and Geraldine (Hauser) Ott, also grew up on a dairy farm and worked many years at Moore Business Forms (now RR Donnelley) and Monroe Clinic.

Anderegg was recruited by Walt Rufener and Jan Benkert to co-chair the retail committee. She also co-chaired the entertainment committee several times with Clayton Streiff. She went on to serve as Vice President of the Cheese Days Board and currently chairs the History and Archives Committee – a labor of love that she took on after Kathryn Etter passed away.

One of Sherry's most prominent Cheese Days memories is from 1988, when a small group from the Swissair Band made plans to visit and entertain at the festival. Sherry was tasked with finding homes for them to stay in. Interest in making the trip grew, and the group from Switzerland kept getting larger and larger, with eventually more than 100 people planning to take part. Local Monroe residents began avoiding Sherry – turning away when they saw her in the grocery store and at church – because they knew she'd be asking if they had a spare room for a band member or spouse to stay in. But, she kept trying, and opened her own house to the director and several band members. "That we found rooms for all 100 – it was a miracle!" she says.

Both Bert and Sherry have been members of the Swiss Singers. Both are involved with hosting the Heart of Cheese Days Swiss Heritage exhibit that the Monroe Swiss Singers present at Turner Hall during the Cheese Days Festival. Both have been to Switzerland and would go back in a minute; Bert with family roots in Glarus and Berne, and Sherry with family roots in Glarus.

Look for this pair of ladies to be celebrating their Swiss heritage and enthusiastically leading things off at The Swiss Colony Cheese Days Parade on Sunday, September 16, 2018.