Float is hard work on limited funds

As a longtime volunteer in the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn., I feel I must respond to the letters written by Trent Sanders (Dec. 27) and Ellen Sherwood (Jan. 3) regarding our float designs.

Standing Rule No. 1: Float Riders

There will be no people identifiable as human beings riding on the float. Human power may be used to maneuver or cause figures of any description to have movement, but persons will not be displayed simply for the benefit of riding on the float.

Standing Rule No. 2: Float Design

It is the continuing policy of the Board of Directors to design and enter a float in the Rose Parade that is simplistic, humorous, has aspects of surprise and/or startle, and is colorful and highly animated.

There are many reasons we build the kind of floats we build. The primary ones are personnel and budget. To build the kind of float Mr. Sanders envisions would require a budget of somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000, and a paid professional full-time crew. We have neither. Our budget is between $75,000 and $80,000 and our all-volunteer crew works only on Saturdays for most of the year. We work outside all year in temperatures ranging from 40 degrees in the winter to more than 100 degrees in the summer.

Instead of complaining about what we don’t build, rejoice with us in the award-winning floats we do build.

Sharlyn French
La Cañada Flintridge

Editor’s note: The writer is secretary for the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn.