Upcoming Rose Parade

Who Let the Dogs Out??
Tillman and Tyson featured on the CBS Early Show practicing for the Rose Parade float


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Burbank volunteers work to finish Rose Parade float
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer
Updated: 12/30/2008 12:30:55 AM PST
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A 30-foot-tall snorting dinosaur, laser-blasting spaceships and oversize popcorn containers complete with butter scent.

These are just some of the elaborate features that volunteers with the Burbank Tournament of Roses Association were trying to complete Monday afternoon as the deadline to finish their floral masterpieces for this year's Rose Parade drew closer.

To get the moving pieces of art done on time and in top shape, seasoned volunteers like Ginny Barnett have made 24-hour shifts on the days leading up to the event a tradition.

"It's a lot of work but I wouldn't know what to do with myself during the week between Christmas and New Year's if I didn't come here," the Burbank resident said.

Like Barnett, thousands of volunteers across the Southland have been working for months on their floats, submitted from all over the country.

Since 1890, the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses has rung in the new year for parade spectators - now including millions of television viewers - who wait every year to get a glimpse of the elaborate floats, as well as marching bands and equestrian teams that compete for accolades at the event.

Others look forward to the annual event for its athletic action. This year the Rose Bowl will host a showdown between the University of Southern California and Penn State - true to the Rose Bowl's old tradition of matching the Pac-10 and Big Ten champs.

Still for volunteers like Barnett, who has been working on floats in Burbank for 17 years, the real satisfaction is found in getting your hands on the float.

"It didn't take long for me to get hooked," the computer technician said as she glued crushed and sifted marigolds onto a foam road - mustard for a three-foot hot dog that sat nearby.

The feat of putting together the bigger-than-life floats - this year Burbank's float tops out at 43 feet long, 28 feet tall and 18 feet wide - is the ultimate arts and crafts project. It tends to hook people like Beth Weinstein, a stained-glass artist who Monday delicately placed white flower petals onto a giant soda-cup lid. A Miami resident, Weinstein volunteered with the Burbank float team three years ago, when she came to visit family. This year, Weinstein persuaded her husband to take the 3,000-mile trip with her to work on the float again.

"It really is an amazing experience," Weinstein said.

But not every volunteer is a natural-born artist. Thirty-year float volunteer Pat Wilson said she always shied away from painting or drawing.

"It's the sense of starting a big project and watching it come together that I enjoy," Wilson said.

As the warehouse buzzed with the sound of drills and welding, the blue eyes of first-time volunteer Katelyn Bauer, 9, stood wide open as she stared at the float.

"I am so surprised by how big everything is; look at the popcorn tubs - they're huge," Bauer said of the 4-foot-high vessels.

At a cost of about $100,000, putting together an impressive float is not easy for a nonprofit corporation.

The Burbank entry will go up against $400,000 and $500,000 floats produced by professional float builders.

But for Steve Edward, design chairman for Burbank's float team, the challenge of finishing an ambitious project every year, relying solely on volunteer hours, is exciting.

"Those floats are more consistent," Edward said.

"But in our float you can see the different techniques employed by different people ... You can see the community's work."

connie.llanos@dailynews.com 818-713-3634


Parade entries, in order of appearance

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/