Burbank Rose Parade float nears completion

There were more than 100 volunteers at the Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn.’s float barn Thursday morning diligently fabricating and decorating all the pieces of the float ahead of its public debut on New Year’s Day.

Although there was still plenty of work to be done on “Sand-Sational Helpers” — which included covering a large octopus that sits on the front of the float with flowers, decorating all of the sea animals with the appropriate plant materials, fabricating an umbrella out of metal wire mesh and installing spires atop a sand castle’s turrets — there was no sense of urgency or tension in the air, which slightly concerned float construction chairman Bob Hutt.

“It seems like it’s going a lot smoother than it has in years past, but then again, after years of working on a float, you’re kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Hutt said with a laugh.

Since Tuesday, droves of volunteers, as many as 300 in a day, have stopped by the construction site, located next to Burbank Water and Power’s yard at 123 W. Olive Ave., to work on the float.

Ginny Barnett, the association’s president, said numerous residents have donated their time to the effort.

She added that several restaurants in the city — including Simmzy’s, Centanni Trattoria, Handy Market, Gordon Biersch, Coral Café, Martino’s Bakery, Western Bagel and Lancer’s — have donated food to give to volunteers in order to show appreciation for their hard work.

Among the volunteers was Catherine Glandon, the 14-year-old designer of Burbank’s 2018 float. She was meticulously placing caraway seeds on the underside of one of the structure’s turtles.

Though she and her family have been volunteering with the Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn. since 2010, Catherine said it was surreal decorating the float she helped design.

“It’s kind of crazy. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I designed this,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing, though.”

Just outside the float barn’s large door was 14-year-old Sophia Goodson, who was gluing fabricated suction cups onto the octopus’ arms.

Sophia, who is from Temple City, said it was her third year helping decorate a Burbank float and that it was the first time that she was able to walk on the float and physically decorate different parts of the structure.

“Before this year, I’d only been working on making the product that’s glued onto the float, like crushing lentils or brushing out palm bark to make hair,” Sophia said.

Now that she has a greater responsibility during the decorating process, Sophia said she has learned that it takes good communication and management skills to finish a float.

“You have to be really organized, and you have to work well with other people,” she said. “Other than that, it’s really cool and really fun.”

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio