Volunteering - A Year in the Life of a Rose Float

I started volunteering with Burbank Tournament of Roses Association (BTORA/ Association) in November 2012 for the 2013 float “Deep Sea Adventures.” In the years that followed I volunteered mainly during Deco Week but recently I have become more involved with the Association by being elected to the Board of Directors in February 2022. I have often been asked about what happens with the building of the float. It takes a year for our Association to build the float for the Rose Parade presented by Honda on New Year's Day.

BTORA is one of only six self-built floats with all volunteers who build the float. The Association is a 501 (c)3. We do get funding from the City but we also do fundraisers throughout the year and sell float merchandise in our store. The City of Burbank has been a participant since the 1914 parade, but the Association is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

The process begins 16 months ahead of time when Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association (Tournament) releases a hint of the theme in September. The Design Contest starts with this announcement. Entries are accepted by anyone from around the world. BTORA has a blind Design contest entry process.? The official theme is announced in January by the incoming Tournament President. BTORA ends the Design Contest on or about the last week in January. The following Saturday all the design entries are presented to the Board of Directors to select a slate to present to the Membership for Pick the Float Night. For the 2025 float, the Board selected eight to present to the Membership.

On Pick the Float Night, members vote on all the floats with the lowest one removed after every round of voting. Ties are voted on with the highest one moving forward to the next round of voting. At the end there is only one winner, and the designer is announced to the membership. All of the finalists are taken to Tournament for the parade selection process, Theme/Design Registration, held around the second Wednesday of February.

At the Theme/ Design Registration numbers are drawn to see which order the float builders will present their design(s). It is always good to have a lower number than a higher number since there is a possibility that your first design entry is not selected. If too many of the same items are presented, Tournament will say no more designs may be presented with that item. If you are number 25 of 35, and there are five designs presented with cows featured and you have a cow in your design, there is a good chance that it won’t get in. The second choice would be presented in its place.

Once Tournament accepts the design, the Design Committee meets and makes the winning design build ready. The Design Committee moves things around, removes items, adds items in that best fits the theme and the overall design of the float. A final black and white design is presented to the Deco Committee.

The Deco Chairperson and the Deco Committee meet and decide what colors will be selected for the float design. After the colors are selected, the natural materials are selected to best fit the budget and the design of the float. Materials are all organic in nature from flowers to split peas that can be used on the float. No materials used on the float can be dyed.

While the Design and Deco Committees are meeting the Construction Committee is actively working on creating the architectural design of the float. Construction says yes or no to what can be done and not be done with the float. BTORA is restricted by how large the float can be built because of Tournament’s specifications and the Association’s space. The Tournament’s float size is 16’-6’’ height, 18’ width, and 55’ length. Construction handles the animation of the items on the float as well as building the float. The chassis which the float is built on is readied for inspection by the City of Burbank and Tournament. The City takes the chassis for an annual inspection and repair. Tournament will conduct three inspections of the float, one mechanical (M1) and two technical (T1 and T2) before the float is given the green light for the parade.

The final color design rendering is presented to Burbank City Council for approval. Now, construction can really start going forward. After the welding is done, the outline or frame of the float is either screened or chicken wired. The screen parts of the float are later cocooned and are used for mostly dry materials. Cocooning is a chemical process which produces a thin layer of cotton-like substance that hardens after application. The chicken wire is used for the foamed part of the float. The foaming is done primarily on the pod of the float and is used for the vialed flowers – namely the roses. On top of the chicken wire goes bedsheets to prevent the foam from going into the chassis area. Foaming like cocooning is a chemical process that adds foam to the float but is harder than cocooning. The whole float is painted in the colors as shown in the color design.

During this time, volunteers are busy getting the dried items ready by either cutting the dried flowers or cleaning of flower trimmings, and / or drying flowers. All materials are stored and saved to be applied on the float before or during Deco Week. In early December, the Deco Chair, Construction Chair, and Manpower Chair meets and decides the staging for all the items that are to be added to the float. These are removable items that are decorated off the float and added to the float during Deco Week. The flower cage is set up where all the fresh flowers are stored in buckets of water. For the April 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024 year, the Association had a total of 1438 volunteers to help with the building of the float.

What is Deco Week? It starts on December 26th and ends on December 31st - five days to completely decorate the float. The first days are concerned with adding the dry materials. The roses and other flowers arrive on or about the 28th and are processed. Placement starts on the night of the 29th through the 31st mid-morning/ afternoon. The float is judged twice, on the 30th is first judging and the 31st is second judging, when all the materials must be added to the float.

After the second judging, the float is prepared for the convoy to Pasadena. We have a traditional final run-through of the float’s music and animation before the convoy leaves between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm for Pasadena. The float needs to be in Pasadena in the Formation area no later than 3:00 am on the 1st of January.

The float crew sleeps in an RV near the float and wakes up at 5:00 am to get ready for the parade. The Awards are announced at 6 am by the Tournament President. We along with other float builders hope to win one of the 24 awards for our float. The top award is The Sweepstakes Award.

Following the parade is FloatFest, where all the floats are put on display for the public to walk around and view the floats for two to three days. The float is returned to Burbank and on display for another week near the Central Library. After the displays, the float is returned to the float barn and is readied for deconstruction. Everything is removed from the float – foam – vials – flowers – steel frame and returned to the original empty chassis. Then we start the process again for the following year.

Other things that happen during the year of building a float:

In February at the General Meeting, the elections are held for the Board of Directors. The Board consists of 12 members, five Officers and seven Directors, and becomes effective immediately upon election.? At the Annual Banquet, in March/ April, the old board of directors is de-installed, and the new board of directors is sworn in by the current mayor of the City of Burbank. Awards are given to other volunteers for their help during the year of building the float.

Starting in April to May, we offer welding classes to paid members. They are trained in how welding will be done on the float. To pass, the future welder needs to build a spider from the loose pieces of pencil rod supplied by the teacher. Once completed they will be allowed to weld on the float. An advanced welding class is offered to welders who have been welding for two years with BTORA.

On Saturdays between mid-September and mid-December, groups of up to 20 people in two-hour time slots are asked to come and help with the building of the float. The groups help with the preparation of the dry materials, painting, and/ or any outstanding projects.

In October, the Association holds our Annual Open House and Craft Faire. Vendors come and sell craft items and the float is out on display. BTORA has our T1 inspection on the same day to coincide with this event.

What I love most about BTORA is that we have a great group of people who come and help with the float. The usual thing of making new and meeting friends holds true as well. You have ‘known strangers’ those that you only see once a year during Deco Week. You renew your friendship and have long chats about the previous year or what is going on with the float. With every year being a different theme, the items on the float are always changing – one-year bears – another a phoenix – last year butterflies this year it is dinosaurs. And you get to see something that you have worked on and enjoyed by millions of people.

Oh, and how could I forget the traditions that we have, and individuals have. Some members have patches for every float they have worked on stitched on their coveralls, jackets, and /or in plastic sleeves. ?My own tradition is to have named vials on the floats. These are vialed roses placed on the float near the front. The names of people I have lost, my parents and I have ridden down Colorado Blvd for the last few years.

Dear reader, you are more than welcome to come down and create new friendships and help us build the float. Please check the website for more information. https://www.burbankrosefloat.com/

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