Rose Parade floats for Burbank, La Cañada recognized; Glendale makes its return
In keeping with this year’s Tournament of the Roses theme — “Find Your Adventure” — a common adventure for many parade volunteers and attendees early Friday morning was braving the chill in Pasadena.
Six of the self-built floats received official honors, including Burbank and La Cañada Flintridge, for Best Theme and the Bob Hope Humor Award, respectively.
At 5:45 a.m., temperatures hovered just above 40 degrees before sunrise as volunteers huddled at their floats in winter jackets, while some, like La Cañada Flintridge, brought single-burner camping stoves to boil water for hot cocoa.
“It wasn’t as cold as it was last year,” said Jeff Helgager, head of general construction for La Cañada’s float, titled “Up a Creek.” He noted that after a few years of helping put the final touches on the float on New Year’s Eve, the volunteers made sure they “have a cushion” and were as comfortable as possible while awaiting the parade’s start.
Bill Pounders, president of the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn., acknowledged the cold weather and wind caused delays on Thursday.
The float featured four forest rascals — Bucky Beaver, Buddy Bear, Hobbes the Bobcat and Skybird — who were on a river raft traveling along the rushing rapids.
The float’s raft motioned side to side while moving along the parade route. Also, the animals’ heads turned and Bucky Beaver’s arm stroked the water with his paddle. All the while, Skybird held the raft lines in its beak attempting to drag his friends to safety.
“We’re really excited to win that award,” Pounders said, noting it is the seventh time in La Cañada’s 38 years of participating in the parade to win the Bob Hope Humor Award.
“We’re dedicated to animation and humor,” he said.
“Up a Creek” featured 10,000 roses in 11 different colors, 6,950 red carnations and more than 8,000 mums, in addition to several other flowers, fruits, vegetables and dry plant materials.
Pounders said logistics were a little difficult in creating the decoration materials, and they used more roses than in 2015. He estimated the association went over budget this year with total costs anticipated between $105,000 and $110,000.
La Cañada Flintridge had a new artist this year — Renee Hoss-Johnson, a production designer for Sony Television.
“She’s very hands-on,” Pounders said. “This is one of the best floats we’ve produced. It was about 35,000 hours to put everything together. We have more than 1,000 volunteers.”
The city of Burbank float “Are We There Yet?” rolls down Orange Grove Avenue during the 2016 Rose Parade in Pasadena on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016.
While the comedy in La Cañada Flintridge’s adventure theme was a major highlight, the Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn. captured the timeless tagline coined by children cramped in back car seats on family vacations: “Are We There Yet?”
“This is a huge award for us,” said Ginny Barnett, the association’s president. “We’ve never won it before.”
The float featured a raccoon family setting out on a last-minute vacation. They raced out of town without a plan, except to find an adventure. The 46-foot-long float included a vintage “ teardrop” trailer.
Adam Ostegard, co-designer of the float with Linda Cozakos, of Burbank, said they created the float based on reflecting on their own family vacations while growing up in California.
It was Cozakos’ first winning float-design entry and Ostegard’s third, with previous wins in the 2007 and 2009 parades.
Osetgard, who works for Disney Shanghai as a character artist, had communicated the majority of his involvement with “Are We There Yet?” via email from overseas, only having flown back to see the finished product two days before New Year’s Day.
In addition, it was Cozakos’ first time as a “white suiter,” or member of the Tournament of Roses Assn., to design a parade float.
The city of Glendale float “Getting There is Half the Fun” rolls down Orange Grove Avenue as it starts the 5.5-mile long parade route during the 2016 Rose Parade in Pasadena on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016.
Jon Reeves, head of construction for Burbank’s entry, said the total cost of the float was around $100,000, with the largest line item being the seeds and flowers, totaling $40,000. He noted that most of the commercial floats in the Rose Parade average around $250,000.
For the city of Glendale, 2015 marked the first year the Rose Parade rolled through Pasadena without an entry from the Jewel City.
After forming a partnership between the Glendale Rose Float Assn. and the city, fundraising efforts came together in the last year to make sure Glendale had its 101st Rose Parade float ready for New Year’s Day. Its theme was “Getting There is Half the Fun” and it rolled down the parade route to the tune of “California, Here I Come.”
The City Council allocated $200,000 for this year’s float, with hopes that the association will raise funds for future floats.
“We were able to convince the City Council that we deserved an opportunity,” said Keith Sorem, president of the Glendale Rose Float Assn.
The association is working to raise $50,000 and is about half way to that goal, Sorem added.
The float featured various modes of transportation including the facade of the Larry Zarian Transportation Center, a steam locomotive, a vintage airplane, a 1950s convertible and cyclists out for a ride.
According to volunteer Cindy Slaughter, it was the city’s longest float at 51 feet, and about 10,000 volunteer hours were spent on it.
Sorem said the association members worked quickly to construct the float.
“The City Council didn’t authorize this contract until June, so to get this all done is six months is amazing,” he said.
It was also the second year that the American Armenian Rose Float Assn. had a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade. The theme of this year’s float was “Discover Armenia.”
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Matt Sanderson is a contributing writer for Times Community News.