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Burbank Rose Parade volunteers busy constructing 2018 float

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Now that the final color rendering of Burbank’s 2018 Rose Parade float has been released, volunteers with the Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn. are ready to turn a concept drawing into reality.

Parade volunteers stopped by the Burbank City Council meeting on Tuesday to show council members and the public what the upcoming float, titled “Sand-Sational Helpers,” will look like.

The design depicts a group of sea animals — a seal, sea otter, pelican, great blue heron and an octopus — coming together and helping one another clean the ocean and a beach.

Though many people associated with the float were excited to showcase the design, Steve Edward, the association’s vice president, said many of them have been busy behind the scenes, either welding the frame for the new float or doing research on materials to use when decorating it.

“Our construction crew and decoration crew have been very busy,” Edward said. “Construction has begun, and they’ve been laying out some of the major mechanisms. The decoration crew has been testing out new materials and is trying to see how they want to see the float come together.”

Volunteers have already been putting hours into the new float, which Edward said will have two major mechanisms — one that will be seen by parade-goers and another that is being installed for transportation purposes.

The back of the float will have a 24-foot-tall sand castle, which is taller than the overpasses that go over the Ventura (134) and Foothills (210) freeways. To solve that issue, a mechanism has been installed to make the structure collapse when it’s being moved, Edward said.

The front of the float will feature a mechanism that Edward said is meant to simulate moving water without having any water at all.

“One side of the float is a wave mechanism,” he said. “We hope for you to see flowers moving up and down in a wave motion.”

Edward said that he and the core group of volunteers learned a lot of lessons from last year’s float, when they faced mechanical issues and time constraints.

He said construction is off to a good start, and they should be ready for their first test drive on Oct. 7.

“The theme of this year’s Rose Parade is ‘Making a Difference,’ and this float is about recycling,” Edward said. “I think we hit the parade theme right on the nose, and I think as long as we can put together a good-looking float that’s constructed well and decorated well, I hope we really have a good chance at winning the Theme Award.”

Anyone interested in volunteering with the Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn. can visit burbankrosefloat.com.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio

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