Volunteers put decorations on Rose Parade 2023 floats at Phoenix Decorating Company in Irwindale.
“My kids think that I should be at home knitting,” said English, 86, who stood ready to get her hands all sticky from glue and flax seeds or whatever. She was taking a short break from float decorating Thursday, Dec. 29 at the Phoenix Decorating Company’s facility in Irwindale.
At faraway glance, the floats look stagnant. But up close, an elk’s hoof looks realistic and a float featuring disabled kids playing sports starts to come to life, as each volunteer works on the massive mobile sculptures like a painter to a canvas. Phoenix has to train thousands of volunteers — very cheap labor — quickly and efficiently. It runs like a boot camp. The leaders give marching orders. There are timed lunch breaks. Then a back to work call echoes from the loudspeaker.
One of his star trios were sisters Stephanie Flores and Michelle Borrecco, in from Northern California, and volunteer Diane Shaw, from Fremont, whom they met this week. All three were adding seeds and earth colors to the baby ocelot featured on the Western Assets float, “Welcome to the Jungle.” Yes, the work may be tedious, he said. But like a painter admiring a finished canvas, there’s tremendous satisfaction in the end. “You can eventually stand back and say it looks good. I’m proud of it,” he said. “It’s three-dimensional art.”
Likewise, Stephanie Flores, one of the two sisters on the Western Assets float, has already exchanged phone numbers with Shaw.
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