Local help for Tournament of Roses

When the Roy Rogers float is seen by millions of people as it moves down Colorado Avenue at the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade the day after New Year’s Day, a group of local students can proudly say they had a part in putting it together.

The students — 29 Key Club members from Granite Hills High School — traveled to Pasadena on Dec. 3 to help construct floats.

Once there, the group — including  sophomores Micha Ramirez, Eberlin Camberos and Juan Diaz, the club’s president, vice president and treasurer, respectively, GHHS teacher Diane Wagner, and Jim Koontz, Porterville Kiwanis liaison with the school’s club — was sent to one of several warehouses to work with Phoenix Designs in the decorating of the 100th-birthday anniversary float of Roy Rogers.

“The float is amazing and will feature 100 Palominos who will lead it. It will also be pulling Trigger (Roy Roger’s taxidermy palomino horse) on the float,” Wagner said. “Of all the floats we could have worked on, to work on one that will be featured is quite a treat. This was a great opportunity for these kids.”

The students also worked a bit on the Microsoft Connect Float, but because it was not completed, they were not sure of what the final product would look like.

One thing was certain and Ramirez, Camberos and Diaz all agreed that it was an honor to work on the floats and an experience they will never forget.
But the work was not easy.

Tournament of Roses parade floats are decorated only with 100-percent natural products — flowers, seeds, bark, and leaves, either dried or fresh.

“We sat on the floor and started cutting flowers that had been dried, separating the petals by color,” Diaz said. “Then they took the petals to a large group of women with blenders who blended them into a powder that we had to glue.”

Using paintbrushes, the students “painted” an Elmer’s type of glue and then proceeded to glue on petals, sesame seeds and walnuts onto the float which was already built and painted, Camberos said. While some students continued cutting, others glued and sponged the petals onto the glue. Underneath, a plastic sheet caught any floral dust that fell — which was then dusted back into a bowl and used.

The glue and petal dust got on their clothes, hands and in their hair, the teens said.
“It’s amazing what they can do with flowers,” Camberos said. “It was tiring. We all got leg cramps but it was worth it.”

Among one of the interesting assignments, was peeling birch bark into layers that when set and done would be used to look like wood on the float.

“There were some areas we couldn’t walk on because it would break the floor so we had to climb up on this other part and work upside down on the float,” Diaz said.

For Camberos, the most surprising thing to see was the six or seven horses being decorated that will lead the float — either pulling it or giving the impression of pulling it.

Diaz was amazed at the science of putting the natural ingredients on the float, and Wagner said she was amazed at the way the organization had the decorating down to a science.
With an approximate 700 people in the warehouse, each person had their own job to do.
“It was quite an experience,” said Ramirez. “There’s not a lot of kids our age that get a chance to do that.”

The Rose Parade starts at 8 a.m., Jan. 2, and will be broadcast live by eight networks — ABC, NBC, Hallmark Channel, HGTV, RFD-TV, Tribune, Univision and Sky Link TV.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or eavila@portervillerecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @Avila_recorder.