Working the night shift Friday decorating the City’s Rose Parade float in Irwindale will be a breeze for the 11- and 12-year-old Girl Scouts from Troop 689 who are considered “night owls.”
“We’ve done sleepovers and they have stayed up until 2 p.m., so finishing by 11 p.m. is early for them,” said troop leader Vickie Dostis. “They have more energy than you can imagine.”
The girls’ energy is certainly needed as the City heads into the final stretch of building its “Making a Splash” float for the 120th Tournament of Roses Parade.
The scouts are eager to join thousands of others who have come together to help decorate the City’s float that will feature four Olympians, residents and members of the Mission Viejo Nadadores, who will dive into 10 tons of water as the float makes its way down the 5 ½ mile parade route.
Vickie said, as expected, the girls are elated and cannot wait to get to work. Their enthusiasm is contagious.
“I think us adults are even more excited about being there than the girls are,” Vickie said, adding that she has only seen the parade on TV.
Vickie said they are grateful to the City for providing this wonderful opportunity to the community.
Photos from the decorating session can beviewed here:
http://cityofmissionviejo.org/roseparade/photos/20081226/
I think this a fun and civic activity to do. It is a great way to meet interesting and young people and to work together on a project that will bring joy to many.
- Eva Schmidler
I had tons of fun today. Everyone should come up here to check this place out. We worked on trees and bears – put seeds on them. New Years day will be fun this year seeing what we have made. We are so lucky to live in a city that has so many art projects to work on.
Bob Knoke
I loved decorating the float with my friends!!! I can’t wait to see it finished in the Rose Parade!
Lauren T
Troop 1332
This was so fun decorating the floats and I can’t wait to see them finished and in the Rose Parade.
~Kendall
Troop 1332
Thanks for letting us help it was soo fun!!!
This is so much fun, and I really hope that they keep doing this every year. It’s very cold though
-Sarah Entezari
City of Mission viejo, thankyou for leting us come and decorate the float , it so interesting, wide variety of things they are using, it is lot of fun!!. learned a lot about different seeds.
Manu Swamy
Hey I am a part of girl scouts and I thought decorating the float a great experience so great that I coming again next week. Well on the float I help create the tree and nome of the bars on the side. I know that I will always enjoy every moment of helping decorating the float. I can not wait to watch the parade and know that I helped create this one float.
<3<3 Elisabeth B. <3<3
<3<3 Troop 384 <3<3
My Girl Scout Troop is having a blast decorating Mission Viejo’s City Float!! There is a lot of work put in to this float and there are a lot of volunteers working on it. I helped making a tree and wrapping seaweed around poles. I have been waiting for this so I can say that I helped make that float while I’m watching tv with my family!It is such an honor to be part of this and I cant wait to come back next year!!
<3<3Ariana A. <3<3
<3<3Troop 384 <3<3
I am with my Girl Scout troop #384, and are having a wonderful time decorating the Mission Viejo float! It is so much fun decorating with seaweed and hanging out with my troop! I can’t wait to see the Rose parade on TV, and point out to my parents which part I did! Also, I hope to be able to come back next year and decorate it again! For me, I will remember this for my whole life!
-Alanna L. Girl Scout troop 384!
I am in girl scout troop #384. We are all having a fab fab time. hope we all remember this 4 the rest of our lifes!i cant waight till we all finish and we all see it on the rose parade!!!!!! it will be soooooooo great to see us on TVand have a great time wich we already are… I love making floats for the rose parade. It’s hard work but its worth it and when u see ur work on television wwooooowwwwww its sooooo cooollllllll and great. i love making floa6s and everything. it just bllllluuuuuuuueeeeeeeee myy mind away. i willo love love love love this float always. i am doing the mission vijo float making. i am doing the trees on the float and my friend alanna lee is helping me. she glues while i past on the seaweed. u know girl scouts is just such a fab fab fab and 1,000,000,000 toiomes more just great! even fab fab 1,000,000,000,000,0000 any girl scouts is a great experioonnnssssseeeee that i will never forget!!!!
-melissa moorewood
Hi this is Kathy B. leader of Cadette trooop 384. The four girls I brought here tonight are having a blast glueing seaweed to the side of our float. It’s hard long work, but a great experience. We have seen the beginning of some great floats and looking forward to seeing them during the Rose Parade. The group that came up tonight from MV are all having a great time. We are all doing something different on the float. It’s great to be a part of something that will benefit the country by being proud of what our city is achieving by entering the float. I can’t imagine what the finished project will look like, but my daughter and I have decided to volunteer another night. We want to make sure that we have helped our float be one of the best at this year’s Rose Parade. The girls have learned the new meaning of service. One in fact said that this is definitely a different type of service project! We happy to be a part of it. Have a Great New Year and Look for the float. the seaweed side is the part we are working on – so you can say that you heard from Girl Scouts that actually worked on the float on a chilly December evening!!!
Kathy B. Troop 384, Service Unit 3 Mission Viejo.
HI this is Amy J. I’m not in any service group Just here for the fun of it. I got the idea from my mom. She did it with my older sister two years ago. Its been pretty fun here like meeting new people, doing crafts, and having a great experience. What i’ve been doing latley is decorating the mosaics. i’ve been putting seeds, union seeds, and split peas on trees and bears. These will be going on the mission viejo float. Its really cool to see old floats and new floats here. Like A safari float that was used awhile ago or the new tree house. Its been cool to here all about floats in the past that they take apart and use them for new floats. These people are not ones to waste things. They take care of everyone very well. When it comes to break the food is great. The worst part is the nights BURRR!!!!! its freezing here at the night shift but it keeps everyone moving. Well its been a fun chilly night and i’m having a great time i hope i get to do it next year!!!:)
Amy J. Mission Viejo
Hey this is Brenna G. and I came with my Girl Scout troop, 689. It was our leaders’ idea to come here, and the girls agreed. It’s the end of our shift, and we’ve decorated many parts of the float, including gluing bark to the poles (they’re supposed to be trees) and gluing rice to the back steps. It will be really fun to watch the parade on T.V. and think, “Hey! I helped decorate that!” I really enjoyed every minute of it, and I plan to come back next year with my troop!!!
<3,
Brenna G., Mission Viejo
hey this Mina and float decorating is so much fun anyone who is bored should try it. I totally want to come back nextyear. We do fun things like put poppy seeds on on the float. It is so much fun to look at the float when its finished so you can see the final outcome.
Mina Manalese, Mission Veijo
This is what I always wanted to do. Come and decorate the floats, but never did come. I’m so happy to come and decorate the float for Mission Viejo. I’m having a great time putting peas on butterflies. To me this is so relaxing and fun. I did two times at the senior center doing cutting of dry flowers. This is my second time working in Irwindale. I’ll be returning on Sunday. I would recommend this to anyone to come and enjoy this experience decorating floats.
Helen Reta, Laguna Wood formering a 20 year resident with Mission Viejo
Hooray! All my life I have wanted to participate is this wonderful event.
This is my first evening of four to participate. Lots of nice people, gorgeous
floats everywhere with lots of talented and enthusiastic young and old
decorating. A real community event!
Elizabeth Mead, retired public school teacher, Saddleback School District
tonight it is not as cold and therefore my fingers are more deterous! It was gratifying to be assigned to place the status (which we spent hours cutting!) on the float’s butterflies.
It is amazing to see everyone so excited about their assignments and no job is too menial or unimportant.
Valerie
What a terrific day! We made so much progress on the float today and it is looking sensational. I am really proud of all the good friends and the fun we are having. I made a new friend today too. Her name is Ethel and she is new to MV and loves it!
This is really fun! Any one who has been thinking about decorating floats should really do it. It can be a little measy but it is a lot of fun!!
It was an experience that i thought i would never get a chance doing, it was a lot of fun and interesting. I had a great time. My job was glueing seaweed to almost everything. It was fun. And if you are interested in flowers, and glueing and decorating be sure to sign up next time cause it is something worth while and something you will remember. Its a one in a life time kinda thing and its filled with joy, and you can feel good about something that you were apart of and made!!
It is truly a pity that the City of Mission Viejo staff and the adults that supervise these children are teaching them that leaching off the taxpayers is a good way to spend their time. Just as surely as if the had been given $100 bills to burn, they are doing nothing but engaging in a taking money from hard working taxpayers and throwing the money away.
Further, lying to the children and telling them this is good for the city, when in fact it is nothing but an excuse to hire more city staff is truly wrong.If we had a vote of the citizens and asked the question “should we spend over $300,000 on a float for the Rose Bowl”, I am sure the opinion would be overwhelmingly “NO”. Only those who have no concept of money and want the nanny government to take care of them “from the womb to the tomb” would support this boondoggle.
Shame on the City and the Girl Scouts for teaching such a bad lesson in civic responsibilty!