Azalea Festival treats winner like a V.I.P.

For the past several months, Vivian Schweizer is a woman who’s been adapting and adjusting. She married only a few months ago, is reacclimating to life in Southeastern North Carolina, and recently spent more than a year helping the residents of her native U.S. Virgin Islands recover from Hurricane Irma.

In March, she decided to enter a contest from the N.C. Azalea Festival and the StarNews that promised tickets to prestigious events, and some lovely perks. Almost 600 people answered questions and gave reasons why they should be named the Honorary Invited Patron — but Schweizer claimed the title.

Over the course of four days during the festival, she and guests attended the Airlie Luncheon Garden Party, the Patrons’ Party Gala, and concerts. But Schweizer’s most memorable moment was a bit more humble.

“Believe it or not, I loved the parade,” she said. “I’ve been to the parade. But to be in it, to see all of those cars and floats lined up, was amazing.”

Because of a planning glitch, Schweizer shared her car with N.C. Sen. Harper Peterson, who walked alongside while she sat in the convertible and waved to attendees.

Schweizer, 52, was born in St. Croix, but traveled to New York to attend college. In 1989, she moved to Wilmington, where she continued her education and earned two degrees from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

For the past several years, she’s been dividing her time between North Carolina and the Virgin Islands, where she was the executive director for a nonprofit that helped victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and child abuse — as well as other vulnerable populations. In this role, she did everything from assisting in day-to-day operations aiding clients, to traveling for policy discussions.

It was during one of her stays in Wilmington, at a laundromat, when she first met Paul Schweizer. With a romance blooming, and one of her adult sons, as well as her mother and aunt, still in North Carolina, she decided to return to this area permanently. The plan was to move in December 2017.

Before that could happen, though, Hurricane Irma devastated the Virgin Islands. She was staying with a cousin while the storm tore off the second story of her home. Schweizer was safe, though, and so was her cellphone, to which she had diverted her work calls.

“Somehow it worked. I kept it charged in the car,” she said. And her agency was essentially open. People kept calling, asking for help.

“They were in desperate need, stranded in their homes, in need of baby formula, everything,” she said. “The calls just kept coming.”

Schweizer was in contact with emergency services and also fielded calls from those wanting to donate supplies.

“I got a call, ‘Can you accept a 40-foot container full of food and supplies?’ I didn’t know where to begin, but we prayed and planned,” she said. She kept receiving donations and saw the continuing need for aid.

“I just couldn’t leave,” she said. That was in October 2017 and instead of returning to North Carolina in December, she stayed until the following year when her 2018 wedding date approached. Of course, by that time, Hurricane Florence had changed the plans for her ceremony. In the midst of all of this, she still must return to St. Thomas and decide what to do with her damaged home. The festival was a welcome chance for fun with friends and family.

“It was just the icing on this cake, of being back in Wilmington,” Schweizer said.

She attended some of the events with her new husband, but took her mother (who is usually at home caring for her 82-year-old twin that suffers from dementia) to the Garden Party.

Alison Baringer English, executive director of the festival, said the contest was a good way to let people know about the Patron Packages, similar to the one Schweizer received, that are available to the public as a way to support the festival. Schweizer also received makeup services from Harbour Day Spa and Salon, a limo ride from Platinum Limousine, and a dress from Lure in downtown Wilmington.

“Everything, the whole festival, was so much bigger than I expected,” she said. “All the events… I was really treated like a V.I.P.”

Allison Ballard can be reached at aballard@gatehousemedia.com.