Float Special Section 2013

The Independent

June 13, 2013

Feature Section Page B1

SUN KEN T REASURES Chewelah’s 2013 Award-winning Float

Ed Broberg photos/Taken at the Lilac parade staging under I-90 on May 18

Feature Section Page B2

June 13, 2013

The Independent

The Ship’s Lead Crew Meet the dedicated and talented community volunteers that help create the float each year Patsy Cotter, Designer

Patsy Cotter has been the Chewelah Float designer for 26 years. Her first float was in 1988 when Steve Deal, Chewelah Schools Superintendent, asked her to help put one together for the upcoming parade season. She said the band had just received their new uniforms but believed they could not enter the parades without a float accompanying them.

She agreed knowing that she already had a few good parents to help out including Roland and Janet Goulet and Judy Burdette, who still helps out each year wherever she is needed.

Although she has no float designing experience, Cotter has a degree in Graphic Design from Spokane Community College and worked in advertising in Montana before moving back to Chewelah, where she grew up. She was even on the float in 1968.

Cotter’s first float, a black and white float featuring a giant piano, created some nervousness among the community because she not only was not using any color, except a few roses, but she had the girls wearing tuxedos as costumes instead of the typical princess-like dresses. However, she proved she was onto something when it won first place at its debut in the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival.

Since then she helped to popularize dance routines, costumes and creativity in the float world over the years. Cotter continues to take inspiration from different things and designs award winning floats every year. She puts in thousands of hours to get it ready for the season and is the director during construction. She does a lot of the detail work herself to make sure it is done to her level of expectation.

She said it is many hours of work but it is a lot of fun and every year there’s another story to tell. It’s an adventure, she said.

Cotter also works full-time as the manager at Gentle Dentistry Chewelah.

Dale Bundy, Driver/Support The 2013 head float committee at Jazzin’ in the Park on May 24, 2013. From left to right: Carmen Hartill, Dale Bundy, Don Mally, Margo Sety, Patsy Cotter, Geri and Mark Trudeau. Not pictured: Ron Mally. Mark and Geri got involved in helping when their daughter, Kathy, was second alternate in 2011. Mark helped drive the float at the Lilac parade and helps with electrical elements as well, and Geri assists in design and construction. Other volunteers include Jeff and Mary Kersey, Judy Burdette, Lori Londagin, Diane Monasmith, Miki Fulbright, and Diane Cobb along with the Distinguished Young Women and their parents Trish and Ed Miller, Jennifer and Kevin Mott, and Barbara and Stacy Murray.

Margo Sety, Sculptor

Carmen Hartill, Costumer Carmen Hartill has been helping to construct the Chewelah representatives’ intricate float costumes for the past five years and brings years of experience to the job with a degree in apparel design from Western Washington University and University of Washington.

She got involved in the float committee when she moved back to her hometown of Chewelah and was looking for a way to help since she was Chewelah’s second alternate 1985 (before Cotter headed the project).

Hartill has been sewing since she was six and made her own clothes in high school. She said her

professional background is mostly in sportswear and custom bridal gowns, but she has experience in making costumes as well.

Hartill said she likes being able to use her degree once a year and the challenge to create something different and unique every time.

In the five weeks between when the girls are chosen and the float makes its first appearance at Apple Blossom, she works during her spare time to create the costumes, however she constantly seeks out deals year round for fabrics and accessories. Hartill also runs her own online business making weighted Waldorf dolls at www.dreampixie.com.

Sety with one her many styrofoam characters. Geri Trudeau photo

Margo Sety has been helping with the float design and construction for 12 years.

Her main contribution is the styrofoam sculptures created each year, which Patsy Cotter said many communities have paid thousands of dollars for the amount of talent and work it takes.

Sety first joined the float project when her roommate at the time got them a job making a monkey for the jungle themed ‘Swingin’ Safari’ float. Although she said she had not done papier -mache since fourth grade, it ended up turning out well. Sety had always had an interest in 2-D art but no experience in sculptures although her teaching degree from Eastern Washington University also includes an art minor.

“I never made a sculpture before, I thought I couldn’t do it,” she said. “It was an awesome artistic opportunity.”

A few years later, she started researching how to carve foam

and now always carves all her characters out of styrofoam, which is then coated and painted. It is easier than papier-mache and you can do more with it, she said.

This year, Sety made the giant purple octopus and said the most challenging part was figuring out how to stuff the six foot long legs. A few elements she created last year like the fish’s faces were reused for this year’s float as well.

Sety said she is kind of famous for her chickens that first appeared on a farm themed float in 2005 called “Chewelah is The Place to Be.” Since then they snuck in on subsequent floats including “Fun in the Sun” and a ‘Feeling Groovy’ 70’s themed float. This year’s pelican is even one of those chickens with a new head.

Sety enjoys being a part of the float as, “It’s an opportunity to make something out of nothing.

It’s a way to use creativity for a cause.”

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Bundy sports his jacket with community buttons and pins he has collected so far. He built the pirates’ rowboat pictured here. Ed Broberg photo

Dale Bundy has been involved with the Chewelah float for 21 years. He drives the float truck, helps get the moving elements working, and knows how to keep the structure sound. He also installs the lights for nighttime parades. “I do whatever needs to be done,” Bundy said.

Bundy is retired from 35 years owning a backhoe business, but said he has been doing projects like this since he was 10 years old

working on big and small cars and trucks.

Bundy first got involved when Steve Deal, Chewelah Schools Superintendent, asked him to help with the float. He said it is a fun experience and enjoys the community that is created among the float drivers and committees.

Everybody helps one other, Bundy said. If someone is having trouble, someone else is there to get it going again.

Ron & Don Mally, Fabricators

Hartill (second from left) with Distinguished Young Women Josie Mott, Naomi Miller and Patti Hernandez. Geri Trudeau photo

The pelican that was once a chicken now sits on the float among other details like plastic skeletons, treasure chests, glittery seaweed, gold coins, and other handcrafted sea life.

Ed Broberg photo

Don Mally built this ship with his brother, Ron. Geri Trudeau photo

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Ron and Don Mally are twin brothers who create the frames for larger elements that are central to the float’s theme each year. This year they constructed the sunken ship, which was later painted by Patsy Cotter. They also welded the frames of the four giant fish in 2012 that were then covered in petal paper.

The Mallys got involved when Ron’s daughter Katie was on the float in 2001.

Since then some of their more memorable projects were a biplane and an Eiffel tower to scale.

Don Mally said he was a steel fabricator for 30 years and this sort

of project is “little trinket stuff” for them.

Don said he enjoys seeing the transformation because they just build from a sketch and dimensions suggested by Cotter and then create the object. Then they deliver it and sometimes don’t see it until the entire float is complete and it always looks much different.

He said he enjoys being a part of this project because it is one of the few things like this that are not money driven.

Don and Ron are neighbors at Jump Off Joe Lake, where there family has been since 1886.

The Independent

June 13, 2013

Feature Section Page B3

Chewelah’s Not So Hidden Treasure

By Kellie Trudeau The Independent Staff

The Chewelah float is a true work of art in several ways and continues to bring home trophies as a stand out among other communities across the state each year. Although it represents a relatively small city, the float, and the people who volunteer their time to make it something special, gives proof of the dedication, talent and spirit Chewelah’s community has to offer on a much larger scale.

For example, the Chewelah float has won the top award at the Spokane Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight parade for the last two years, competing against floats that come from all over the region in the largest parade on the east side of Washington.

However, that recognition does not come without hard work from the expert pool of talent and hardworking volunteer committee that spends thousands of hours to design and construct the float using very little money considering its professional quality.

From the time the Distinguished Young Women representatives are selected at the end of March, the previous float is stripped and the new design work begins to be completed just in time for its debut at the Apple Blossom Festival in Wenatchee the first week of May. Leading the committee is Patsy Cotter, a graphic designer who has been designing the Chewelah float since 1988. This year’s “Sunken Treasures” is her twenty-sixth award-winning float and it does not disappoint. She is involved in all the decision-making throughout the construction process and knows how to make the float sparkle and shine from all angles.

The more it is admired, the more details are noticed.

She said the float is larger than some, about 30 feet long, and so that creates a challenge for filling the entire space.

Some communities spend thousands of dollars on their floats each year that do not match the quality for Chewelah’s float, which Cotter said costs less than $2,000 to build. She shared how she knows one community who paid $2,200 just to have a large Styrofoam sculpture built and shipped from another state that was not even painted for them. Styrofoam carving happens to be a talent for Margo Sety, who has been a very involved volunteer for 12 years.

But there is more to the float than the finished product that is showcased in parades and festivals throughout the summer. Cotter can recall interesting stories about each float she has been a part of from

building it, to loading it, to getting it through the parade routes.

Those stories start with the construction process that sometimes comes with unique challenges to bring Cotter’s ambitious visions to life.

For example, Cotter said the four fish made in 2012 for the “Under the Sea” float were “probably the hardest thing we have done.” After Ron and Don Mally welded the metal frames, the committee had to figure out how to attach the decorative petal paper to them and eventually papier-mached the bodies.

One fish took eight hours just to cover, she said. Then Sety created Styrofoam faces for each to complete the characters central to the float’s theme. Dale Bundy also used wiper motors to get the fish fins moving back and forth. Two of those fish can be seen on the “Sunken Treasures” float.

Cotter said her first float, Simple Melodies, would be challenging today even after 26 years of experience because of the giant curved piano they ended up using chicken wire to form.

Once a float is built there are still challenges to overcome. At the beginning of the Lilac parade in 2008, the Fun in the Sun float started smoking and had to go through the nighttime parade without lights.

Cotter remembers the announcer saying, “it looks like they are barbecuing on the next float.”

Even this year the float faced some drama at the beginning of the Lilac parade. Right before it received its big award banner, the lights were turned on for a few seconds before it stopped running completely and the lights went out. They ended up having it towed through the parade, although the lights turned back on. Then, soon after, it accidentally rear-ended the vehicle towing it, which caused a little more stress for everyone. However, it made it through the parade and repairs were made in time for Jazzin’ in the Park the next week.

The night before the Apple Blossom in 2001, they were loading the completed float into the truck and discovered its centerpiece dragon was too tall.

Cotter said they ended up having to take the head off the dragon’s neck to shorten it and put it back on to be ready for the next day.

Reusing and recycling is another common practice to create these amazing floats each year.

They not only reuse elements from past floats, like when they used the dragon the next year on “Pete’s Dragon,” but they also create many of those elements from recycled materials to help save money.

For example, for the crow’s nest on the sunken

ship, Cotter remembered a basket that had been sitting out in the field behind her house for three years. She finally picked it up, covered it in burlap, and made it part of the float. Sety also shared that the Styrofoam she uses for different character sculptures comes from stuff she found for free at a yard sale that was used in water at one point and “still had ants crawling all over it.”

“Sunken Treasures” features pieces from at least 10 different floats, Cotter said, including a lot of handcrafted creatures and objects from 2012’s “Under the Sea,” although they were moved to new locations.

To help raise money for covering construction and transportation costs, the committee sells advertising on the float truck and also rents the float out for use at the Butte, Montana Fourth of July parade every year.

Since Montana has few parades, companies rent floats they see from somewhere else and pays for them to transport it to Butte. Float truck driver Dale Bundy said one company always chooses the Chewelah float not even caring to see what it looks beforehand because they know it will be good. They replace the Chewelah signs with their own and it takes on a professionally styled float appearance.

Bundy said in the 21 years he has been involved, the float community has shrunk with less and less communities dedicating their time to create a quality float to represent them at other communities. At the Lilac festival staging under the I-90 freeway this year, the floats were all lined up on one side while the float trucks are parked across from them, although Bundy said there used to be so many floats that they were not able to park the truck under the freeway.

However, Chewelah’s float committee continues to stay strong as they all enjoy being a part of the creation each year. There are even many parents and family members, who are forced into it when their girls are chosen to represent Chewelah, that end up helping in subsequent years because of how enjoyable it turns out to be.

“This energy couldn’t just happen anywhere,” Sety said.

Cotter said there is always the core group of volunteers to keep this unique project going, plus new people, new kids, and a new design to keep it interesting as well.

“We are a lucky community to have the talent pool here with their ability and dedication,” costumer Carmen Hartill said.

Cotter is currently working on a display of all her past floats to be viewed at City Hall this fall.

Treasuring the past

1988 - Simple Melodies

Lynette Goulet McCanna, Chandra Burdette Burghardt, Barbie Collins

1990 - The Big Top Jenny Hentges, Lori Herda Poore

From ‘Junk’ to Jewels: Making the old new again

The giant fish took hours, not just to complete, but to figure out how to best decorate when four were made in 2012. They started out as metal sculptures that was papier-mached and covered in petal paper. Trudeau/Broberg photos

1996 - Rootbeer Float

Here’s how the float begins. As soon as the Distinguished Young Women are chosen, the chassis is stripped (this picture is from 2012).

The float is constructed in the city garage located near Safeway, which Cotter said they are thankful for as it is much better than the unheated spaces they have had to use in the past. Geri Trudeau photo

Maggie Evans, Jennifer Paluck Hargarve, Krystal Felts

The crow’s nest is made of an old basket found in a field and covered in burlap. Ed Broberg photo This snake is from an egyptian float. It now sits in a palm tree.

2002 - Pete’s Dragon

Brittany Spencer, Alissa Akers, Kassandra Rancourt This sea creature is made of plumes from old Chewelah band hats. Ed Broberg photo

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The treasure chest started out simply enough and has turned into this detailed piece, which was once was on the front of the float where the new rowboat now rotates. The pirate has been many other characters in the past from an elf to a member of the band. His body is made of PVC pipe, duct tape and foam. Trudeau/Broberg photos

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Cotter’s other float themes in 26 years include: Wizard of Oz, Feeling Groovy 70’s theme, Fun in the Sun, Sweet as Candy, Believe in Magic, Chewelah is the Place to Be, Wish Upon A Star, Swingin’ Safari, and even another pirate one titled “Ship Ahoy!”

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Feature Section Page B4

June 13, 2013

Community Sweepstakes Wenatchee Apple Blossom May 4, 2013

The Independent

A summer sail to remember...

One parent offer’s a glimpse into what parade days have been like...

The Distinguished Young Women share their experience so far

All systems were “go,” lights bright and music playing for the 7 p.m. judging.

To pass the time, Deer Park played dance music while their royalty and our girls danced in the street. Soon, other girls were drawn to the music and a lively dance to pop music ensued as parade participants enjoyed a one and a half hour wait outside the local market. A big blue shampoo bottle and seeing-eye-dog in-training joined in also. The black lab looked a bit confused!

The parade was well attended by spectators who turned out to clap, cheer and enjoy the festivities. Many thanks to Kevin Mott, who donned a black wig, three cornered leather hat and buccaneer shirt to pilot our float through the streets of Moses Lake. We also thank Dale Bundy for transporting the float in the truck and welding the new light fixture to the front repairing the electrical system along with Mark Trudeau and Stacy (Hoss) Murray.

The Moses Lake parade committee even delivered sub sandwiches to our float after they had run out of them at the dinner. What service!

Next stop in the parade route will be the Newport Rodeo on June 29.

Trish Miller, Naomi Miller’s mother, shared this personal account of her most recent experience at the parade in Moses Lake with the other Distinguished Young Women and their parents. Although there are long hours of traveling and waiting, and stressful moments getting ready, each event is unique and getting to know each other and other communities remains new and exciting for everyone: The Chewelah float visited Moses Lake on Saturday, May 25 for the moonlight Madness evening parade.

Over 22 floats were staged in the waiting area, with over 124 entries registered for the 8:30 p.m. show time. Thankfully, threats of rain never materialized even when blue skies were speckled with cumulus clouds.

Our Distinguished Young Women were able to meet new girls from the communities of Zillah and Selah, which had not been in either the Wenatchee Apple Blossom or Spokane Armed Forces Torchlight parades. They had incredible floats and our work parties on “Sunken Treasures” enabled us to admire and appreciate the long hours that must have gone into creating their entries.

Lilac Grand Sweepstakes Spkane Lilac Festival May 18, 2013

DYW Naomi Miller Something I didn’t expect was getting to know all the other families so well. They are super supportive and interesting to talk to. And, of course the kids are adorable. It is interesting to see the dynamics of each parade. We may get stressed about the details coming together, but when the parade starts it is all about giving the best performance for the people watching.

First Alternate Josie Mott Thus far, it has been a rewarding experience and I am having a lot of fun.

I am looking forward to taking on the challenge when the parade season gets busier in July and August. I also love the kids, taking pictures, and being the one in the front to receive the trophy.

Second Alt. Patti Hernandez The cutest thing ever is when a little boy blows you a kiss. It melts my heart! I am so grateful for my parents and everything I’ve received through this experience!

Ed Broberg photos

(Fill in any awards the float picks up along its journey)

A FLOAT IN MOTION: The DYW representatives dance to ‘A Pirate’s Life for Me’ and ‘Talk Like A Pirate Day’ at Jazzin’ in the Park on May 24. They created the routines themselves and use swords and pirate flags for props. The float’s moving pieces include a rotating rowboat, fish fins that move back and forth using a wiper motor, and a bubble machine. Find a video of the float in action on our Facebook page. Geri Trudeau photo

Thanks to everyone who assisted in this project. especially Ed Broberg and Geri Trudeau for taking and sharing their photos, Katie Sharp for designing the treasure map, and the advertisers for their support. (Ed Broberg’s photos are available for print at http://bit.ly/Chewelah).

Special feature layout, design and articles by Kellie Trudeau of The Independent

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