Fans and volunteers are helping out in the final stretch – preparing floats for the Rose Parade.
The University of Washington and Ohio State floats are being built across the street from the stadium by AES Creative. Every seed and flower petal has a place. It’s Sharlyn Delgado’s job to make sure volunteers understand where that is.
“It’s really hard to do these things, you have to be focused on everything,” she said.
A bustling group is coating floats with glue and sprinkling colored seeds on the adhesive. Roses and greenery are embedded on other surfaces. And they have to complete them before the parade steps off New Year's Day.
“We’re like bees, like busy bees,” Delgado said. “It’s just we have to get this done as soon as possible.’
“They’re amazing, all the detail – and it smells so wonderful in here!” said Brenda Morton, a UW fan from Oregon.
A stream of OSU and UW fans filtered past the floats throughout the day on Sunday. Some, like Denise Krell from Bothell, stopped to pitch in.
“Oh my gosh, this is a dream come true,” she said as she worked on the Husky float. “We had the tickets on order during the Cougar game hoping they’d come down here.”
Delgado only asks fans save their competitive spirit for the game.
“We had someone in here … they wanted to put the score up (on the OSU float),” she laughed. “I was like, eh, I don’t think so.”
They have one, unified goal – get the floats ready for the streets of Pasadena.
“It’s so much fun, it’s worth not getting any sleep,” Delgado said.