Cal Poly Rose Float Makes Final Preparations for Parade Day -- Students Looking for Flower-Loving Volunteers

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly Rose Float Team students are looking for volunteers to help them add flowers and finishing touches to the 60th Cal Poly Rose Float parade entry in Pasadena.

The Cal Poly float is the only entry in the annual Tournament of Roses parade that is designed, built, and decorated solely by students and volunteers -- a tradition that dates back to 1949.

Parents, alumni and volunteers are welcome to help the students glue on flowers and add finishing touches to the float in Pasadena the weekend before New Year's Day. No sign-ups are required and drop-ins are welcome.

"Deco Week" begins in Pasadena Wednesday, December 26 and continues for the five days leading up to the New Year's Day parade.

Volunteers work between 8 a.m. and midnight prepping water vials and and gluing and arranging thousands of flowers to finish the float.

Students on the Cal Poly Rose Float Team will be traveling to Pomona the day after Cal Poly finals end on December 7. They will spend the next three weeks preparing the float for Rose Parade. Students from Cal Poly and CSU Pomona will be will be at the Pomona Rose Float lab working every day from approximately 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. During this time period all final shaping, screening and painting is done.

Cal Poly alumni, Rose Float Club family members and media are invited to Float Appreciation Day in Pomona Saturday, December 15, from 3 to 5 p.m.

The event is a special sneak preview of the Cal Poly Rose Float in its pre-flower state. Tournament of Roses judges will inspect the Cal Poly entry on December 16 to evaluate float operations including drive engine functionality, animation performance, and crew compartment conditions.

On Friday night, December 2, the float will be towed from the Pomona campus to the Brookside Decorations Tent at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for Decorations (Deco) Week.

This year’s float, “Guardians of Harmony,” depicts a tranquil Asian garden scene nestled at the bottom of a jagged mountain and balanced between the strength and beauty of a dragon and a Phoenix. The Great Wall of China wraps around the mountain and a three-tiered water fall cascades down into a koi pond.

More information about the Cal Poly Rose Float is available at: www.asi.calpoly.edu/rosefloat (CPSLO) or http://www.cpprosefloat.org/site/news.php (CPP).

More information about volunteering with the program is available at http://www.dsa.csupomona.edu/osl/Rose_Float_Volunteer_Registration.asp

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NOTE TO EDITORS: The Cal Poly Rose Float Program is a program of Associated Students, Inc.