7 January 2009
GSUSA: Rose Parade
Posted by admin under: community service .
Saw one of a few articles online about Girl Scouts helping to decorate the floats at the Rose Parade, but this one caught my eye for a couple of reasons: I sometimes listen to 89.3 and they talk about the place were my troop has gone for the last couple of years to help decorate the Rose Parade floats.
Brian Watt: The budgets for the floats in this Rose Parade were done 10 months ago. So, on the sprawling floor at the Fiesta Parade Floats workshop in Irwindale, volunteers trim thousand of fresh roses. Staffers build scaffolds to the ceiling, so decorators can put finishing touches high up on floats that are just as audacious as any other year.
Sue Sundberg: The mother zebra’s head moves. Both elephants’ heads move. It has four waterfalls, which will be operating.
Watt: Sue Sundberg supervises the decoration of the float from Rain Bird, the irrigation company based in Azusa. This is part-time, seasonal work for her. She’s a full time nurse who decorates floats more for the artistry than for the wages.
She started years ago as a volunteer with her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. There are plenty of volunteers helping out this year – but Sundberg knows of some the tough economy has kept away.
While it’s true that the girls were paid for their work, it was something like fifty cents per hour. We consider it more a community service and fun opportunity to be part of a huge local event that is viewed all over the world. There are many, many Girl Scouts from different troops who participate. Who knows? Maybe the flowers our girls were helping to separate and categorize made it onto the float of our Girl Scout Rose Queen.
I got a chance to wander around and see the floats as they were being assembled. What I didn’t realize is that they take parts from last year’s floats and use them on this year’s if they have something in common. Still, there was a lot of heavy-duty welding going on. There were rough sketches, small models, and full-blown floats all on display in the same area. It was neat to look inside where the drivers sit for the floats. I didn’t realize they had so many controls.
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