Flowers, sweat and tears: Local floats take Rose Parade awards

Burbank, Glendale, La Canada Flintridge and South Pasadena all won awards for their floats in the 124th Rose Parade, with hundreds of local volunteers getting into the act.

Ryan Babroff of Burbank, 26, is already a veteran float expert. He began volunteering with the Burbank Rose Float Assn. at age 7 and has 19 patches on the back of his jumpsuit, one for each year he’s lent a hand.

“My family brought me down when I was little and it became a second family here, working with everyone,” he said.

This year, the Burbank float, “ Deep Sea Adventures,” won the 2013 fantasy award from Tournament of Roses judges. The float features a girl on a submarine being pulled by a team of seahorses. Details included coral in many colors and a sea turtle.

The biggest challenge this year, Babroff said, was constructing a large purple octopus wearing a crown and waving a banner in one of its many arms.

Glendale’s float, “Living the Good Life!” won the award for best depiction of life in California. Featuring a trolley car, a roll of movie film and Glendale’s own Alex Theatre, the float is bearing first-time riders Lance Bird and Sierra Katow, both 18. Both won $10,000 scholarships and the right to ride from Caruso Affiliated, owners of Glendale’s Americana at Brand and a major sponsor of the city’s float.

Bird, a graduate of St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge who now attends Pomona College, said he’s seen several Rose Parades, but not from the center of Colorado Boulevard.

“I’ve never been in one,” he said.” It’s very exciting.”

Katow, who attended La Cañada High School and now is a student at Harvard University, had only seen the parade on television before this year.

“I grew up watching the Rose Parade on television,” she said. “Seeing it from the inside is really cool.”

Janet Madrigal of South Pasadena believes seeing the parade from the inside is so cool that she spent the night inside her city’s float, “Sailing the Sea of Knowledge.”

The float, featuring an old-fashioned sailing ship breaking through waves made of the pages of a book, won the Founders’ Award for best float made by a volunteer crew.

Madrigal, 48, is the head director.

The award, she said, is “the icing on the cake,” but her reward came when she stood back and looked at the completed float with the whole team.

“We actually cried the other night,” she said.

La Canada Flintridge’s float, “Dino-Soar,” won the Tournament of Roses award for best animation. The float features a brontosaurus inspired by pterodactyls to attempt flight. His large wings are among the 38 moving parts in the float, the most of any entry in the 124th Rose Parade.

Dwight Crumb, 64, and his son Dustin, 37, of Pasadena were two of the many volunteers on the float and were on-hand as the parade got under way Tuesday.

“For people who work in animation, the award is a key one,” said Dwight Crumb.

Dustin Crumb was still focused in the minutes before the parade started.

“I can’t really rest until we get through the cameras,” he said, referring to the intersection on the parade route known as TV Corner, at Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards.

Dwight Crumb said the effort was rewarding in several ways.

“I consider myself very lucky to be spending a day a week with my son,” he said.

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Follow Tiffany Kelly on Google+ or on Twitter: @LATiffanyKelly.