La Cañada Flintridge is one of a few cities that still build a Rose Parade float with a line of dedicated volunteers.
Ernest Koeppen is at the forefront of this operation to create an eye-catching float and keep the association going for years to come.
Koeppen describes the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association as a hidden gem, literally and metaphorically as the building site or LCF Innovation Center sits behind the water company in LCF.
His volunteer team regulars, which include about five people, mostly retirees, can’t be the only ones who can help out, so Koeppen has thought of another way to contribute to the community.
Most high schools in California have eliminated shop class electives as most of us know it as, or more recently workshop, where students get to learn the process of building with various materials and machines.
With this in mind, Koeppen thought that adding a learning element to what he has been doing can be a beneficial lesson to kids in the community.
Starting in 2021, Koeppen opened up the site for students to learn the basics of welding and other skills needed for float building. Since the start, he has had high school students help out on the weekends.
Since he moved to LCF about 30 years ago, Koeppen has always valued the importance of getting involved with the community to make it better.
“So, I always thought it’d be better to be part of your community,” he said. “It’s important for you to be part of where you live. It’s hugely important to me, and it’s hugely important to give back when you have something to give back.”
His initial goal was to cater to students in the engineering club during the summer or when activities were slow, but he doesn’t discourage anyone from learning float building skills.
“Come in, I’ll show you everything,” Koeppen says to students. From there, he starts to look for a glint in the kids’ eye to see what they gravitate toward.
Koeppen encourages students who are interested to come on Saturdays to the site.
“My goal is to get mentors and willing minds that just want to be enlightened with stuff they don’t know,” he said. “And then when they do know it, they’re more grateful and more receiving of that information.”
His main purpose is to spread the word of this association and what good it can bring to the community. He has been in contact with the school district to work out some sort of school credit for students coming to the innovation center.
Currently, student volunteers receive community service hours.
THE PROCESS BEHIND THE FLOAT
The association, in light of the theme “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language,” has chosen to go with the 1960s era of music and show off a groovy bus filled with colors that would resemble a traditional tie-dye shirt, and rockstar singing flowers to go along with it. The float will be called “Flower Power.”
The process starts more than one year in advance of the float’s debut. For example, planning for this coming New Year’s Day parade float started in early December 2022 when the association opened a contest for community members to submit float ideas.
“We usually get about 100 to 120 submissions,” said Koeppen. “And the design committee gets together around late January, and we go through, we sit in the room for two hours and write them all down on the board and go, yes, no, yes.”
Once they flesh out a couple of ideas for the new float, they go to the Pasadena Tournament of Roses in late February and pitch their ideas.
“All builders go to the tournament at the same time” to pitch their ideas, said Koeppen.
The LCF association originally pitched a “hippie bus,” but the tournament said they couldn’t do it since it resembled more of a Volkswagen and would be a problem since they are sponsored by Honda. This is when the “hippie bus” turned into a hippie school bus for the LCF association.
As they continue to build the float, they also go through inspections from the tournament to make sure things are moving smoothly. The second inspection will take place in early November when the float has to be completed mechanically.
The building process is different as each float comes and goes through LCF, but Koeppen said the team is required to build in an environmentally friendly manner.
“We came up with a clever way of saving time and money because as you build [the float], you also want to make sure that you’re not wasting resources,” he said. “How can I recycle this stuff later? Am I wasting a bunch of money doing something that can be done [using a different material]? Should it be steel? Or should it be wood? Could it be foam?”
He explained that there are no big limitations when building a Rose Parade float.
“We have no limitations on what we can use can make it,” Koeppen said. But he did mention they cannot leave anything uncovered or paint over a spot that doesn’t have flowers or dry goods.
Koeppen has been able to bring new perspective to the float game and try to do new things to make the float better.
“I like to consider myself pushing boundaries,” he said. “And my goal is always to set a new rule based on an old rule being updated. People don’t like it when I say I love breaking rules. The goal is to advance.”
The community members who spend their days building the float together have been dedicated to the craft and love being part of something this big.
Pam Gossoo, who has been with the LCF association since 2016, said she loves building floats.
“Someone gave me my first welding lesson that day, and I was just committed after that, and [now, I am working on] my eighth float with La Cañada,” she said.
Gossoo, who owned a sign shop for 21 years, likes to get to work with power tools if the job calls for it.
“I really like it, and there’s a lot of opportunity to do different things, and you meet great people,” Gossoo said.
Gossoo is part of the core set of volunteers who come on a daily basis, she likes to call themselves the fab four, “We have four or five people that are doing 90% of all the work. So, that’s tough on everybody, but it’s fun.
“It’s hard to get volunteers, especially this type of volunteer [work] because it’s physical [and involves] power tools,” she said. “For some people, it’s just not their thing.”
For anyone interested in becoming more involved with the association can email Koeppen at president@lcftra.org or show up at the building site to get a tour. For more information, visit lcftra.org.
Donations and fundraising are also part of the association’s efforts to build a great float and keep the association going. They will be having their annual Wine and Roses fundraiser on Nov. 4 at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy.
First published in the October 12 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
