Five students from the Burroughs Interact Club visited Phoenix Decorating Co. in Irwindale, California on Dec. 16th to work on the Rotary Rose Parade float. Along with them, Interactors from other schools and Rotarians also joined in for the decorating.
The float, with a theme of “Clean Water – The Music of Life,” appeared 30th in the line of the 135th annual Rose Parade in Pasadena.
The participating students liked the experience of contributing and meeting new people.
“I enjoyed adding the rice to the float while having the opportunity to talk with all of our club members, as well as meeting and making friends with the people from other Interact clubs,” said Vice President senior Madison Ray.
The team put in a lot of effort to make progress on the float. A few members were busy cutting flower petals while others would glue dyed rice and the petals to the float to add color.
“I liked when I climbed along the scaffolding with a box of flowers and rice and helped glue them along the float,” said the club’s Public Relations Officer senior Paloma Luevano. “I was able to enjoy working with other people when they would glue while I put the materials on and vice versa.”
With everyone’s hard work, the Rotary float won the Leishman Public Spirit award, which is given to the most outstanding floral presentation from a non-commercial participant.
“It feels great knowing that the tedious work we put into the float helped win an award in the end!” said Ray.
After decorating, the group decided to eat at Olive Garden and had a chance to reconvene.
“While we ate dinner, we talked about our favorite part of decorating, all the floats we saw, and joked about all the glue and rice we got on us,” said Luevano.
Interact Club was grateful for the opportunity to assist with the Rotary Rose Parade float once again.
Participating floatbuilders included seniors Miriam Aileen Herrera-Solis, Paloma Luevano, Madison Ray, and sophomores Gabriel Garcia and Jayden Nevarez.
