Karen Weld and sisters have a lifetime experience decorating floats for the Rose Bowl parade

It started when Wright County resident Karen Weld’s sister Jill Murray of Burnsville, Minnesota, took a week-long flower arranging class instructed by a nationally-known floral arranger. “The gal encouraged Jill to apply to volunteer as a Rose Bowl parade float worker,” said Weld. “Jill made contacts in April and we found out in the early fall that we would be accepted for the venture.” The two were joined in traveling to California by a younger sister, Eileen Zirbel.

“We were assigned to work on the Dole fruit float,” said Weld, “with plansto work both on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 29 and 30. The first day we worked about six hours and worked about ten the second day.” There are a limited number of novice volunteers and a larger number of volunteer florists coming in from around the country.

Weld said it was fun to watch the floats take shape. “We worked in theFiesta Floats warehouse, which housed eleven floats with ten of them in competition for awards,” she said. “All parts of each float must have only grown materials exposed. Ours had a jungle, so there were macaws, tigers, and elephants which needed dried plant materials glued to the surfaces. We put ming moss in a couple of shades on a mother and her baby as their skin. Macaw feet were poppy seed.”

For more about the float decorating fun, see the January 7 edition of the Monitor.