Burbank’s Rose float rolls down parade route

Burbank’s “The Dream Machine” won the Mayor’s Award for best municipal float.

Jon Reeves, president of the Burbank Rose Float Assn., designed the hydraulics and many other elements of the float. That includes the bed carrying a sleeping boy at the front of the float.

The bed is made of structural steel, pencil rod steel, chicken wire and a plastic cocoon originally developed to mothball ships, Reeves said.

Among the Burbank volunteers were Victor and Erica Luster of Santa Clarita, who began volunteering for the Burbank float 15 years ago. Victor Luster, wearng the patch he earned for volunteering at his first parade in 1998, said it all started when they were looking for something their bored teenage son could do.

-- Elisabeth Frater and Bill Kisliuk, Times Community News