This afternoon I headed out to Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale, CA to check out the progress on the float building for the upcoming 125th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade which will be held Wednesday, January 1, 2014. As I have been donating time towards helping the Torrance Rose Float Association (TRFA) raise the funds needed for building the float, I figured I would go out to where the float is being built so people can get an idea of what goes into a project like this.
Fiesta Parade Floats builds award winning floats and has for several years; as such, they were actually building about 10 floats. I went a few times last year, but today had the fewest number of people on-site that I can recall. I asked one of the builders and he said that the floats are all pretty much ready for the decorating to begin; that starts the day after Christmas and must be completed by the evening of December 30 as the floats will be judged on December 31. I will go back out in a few days after the decorating has begun so you can see the difference.
The theme of this year\’s Rose Parade is “Dreams Come True.\” The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), which began in Torrance is a primary sponsor for Torrance\’s entry to the parade this year; so you will notice a definite soccer theme with \”Everyone Plays\”, which is the first of AYSO Soccer’s Six Philosophies and the theme of the 2014 Rose Parade float. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday, December 29 at Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale, CA as volunteers hurried to add the organic items to nine of the entries to the 124th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade. After my last visit to Fiesta Floats on Christmas Eve I happened to notice that Fiesta Floats was tweeting my articles about the float preparation at their location, so I contacted their social media person via Twitter and asked if they would be able to assist in my getting in to photograph the actual decorating of the floats. I was put in touch with the Vice-President of The Pollack PR Marketing Group who was more than happy to help me come back in with my camera.
This was my third visit to the warehouse at Fiesta Floats and the first thing I noticed was that this time it smelled great! Of the 10 floats built by Fiesta Floats, nine of them were set up with scaffolding around them and the floats were covered with people adding flowers, seeds and whatever other finishing touches needed to be completed by Monday. To me, some of the more interesting tasks were performed by those adding the small details to the floats; items such as books or butterflies that required each individual seed to be added, one by one; or the people underneath the floats that would pull the flower holders down to ensure that only flowers would be seen on the topside. Continue reading
Saturday, I headed out to Irwindale, CA to visit Fiesta Floats so I could take some photos of the building of the City of Torrance entry to the 2013 Rose Parade. As it turned out, Kaiser Permanente was having a Family Day for friends and family of Kaiser Permanente employees so there was a lot more going on than I expected. The Kaiser Permanente float was being showcased and they had magicians, crafts and games for the kids. They even let people help prepare things for the actual decorating of the float.
The City of Torrance float is coming along nicely, and decorating will be getting started within the next week or so (I would guess). The city no longer sponsors the Rose Parade entry, so it is funded by donations to the Torrance Rose Float Association (TRFA). The Torrance Rose Float Association is a non-profit so they rely entirely on donations. For more details on how you can help, please visit their website. Continue reading