So much to do and so little time.

TITLE

* The letters for “To The Rescue” had been cut out and painted before move down and are ready to attach to the brackets that will hold it in place.

* Since the title bubble “POW!” will be decoed with roses (!!) the sides of the bubble need to be attached so that it can be foamed.

STRETCHY GUY

* is being shaped as we speak and should be mounted on the float today.

TREE

*Since Rose Float loves to recycle…. we are using a tree from a previous float “Jungle Cuts”

* The Tree is already mounted on the float and almost finished being screened.

BRIDGE

* This absolutely gigantic element takes up almost half of the float and is a work in progress.

* It is a replica of the golden gate bridge and is already mounted on the float.

* Our boys have been hard at work consulting with ski lift mechanics in order to replicate the pulley system which will propel the train.

POND & WATERFALL

* In the park of the city scape there will be a pond which includes multiple waterfalls.

* It will be fiberglassed TODAY (!!)

TRAIN

* Is screened and already mounted on the track….. now it only has to move…..

CITY HALL

* Is mounted on the float and in the progress of being screened.

* Pillars are being shaped so that the building resembles the San Francisco City Hall.

CAL POLY LETTERS

* Cut, sealed, painted and ready to be decoed!

STRONG GUY

* He is attached to the breaking and in the progress of bein.g shaped

 BREAKING BUILDINGS

* It MOVES!!

CARS & ROAD

* The road had to be smoothed this morning and hopefully built in the near future.

TRAIN STATION

* Mounted on the float.

TALL BUILDING

* It MOVES!!! since it is over height the building must bend to go under a bridge.

FLYING GIRL

* Being shaped

HELICOPTER

* Constructed and almost ready for screening.

Design Week is officially underway! The float has been foamed, superheroes are being shaped, mechs are being perfected and murals are being decoed! The list is long and there is no lack of jobs! We would always love more volunteers, young and old, new and experienced! So please come out and get involved! Rose Float is a one of a kind program, that gives a volunteer a hands on experience with everything from metals to flowers!

Each year Cal Poly Rose Float Team strives to go above and beyond the expected! Students use their creativity to design a float that will surpass all previous floats and make the Cal Poly’s float even more spectacular. This year for the first time ever…… there will be murals!!! Cal Poly SLO students have been hard at work designing, drawing and painting the comic strip murals that will be the behind the letters of ‘Cal Poly Universities’. The comic strips tell the story of the three superheroes  on the float and their heroic deed of saving a dog from a burning building. These murals will be decoed in Pomona as they will take many weeks to complete. Instead of using color, the murals will be in a grey scale that is typical of older comic strips. Some materials used to deco the murals will be onion seed, rice, poppy seed, Spanish moss, lettuce seed, and blended blue corn. We are super excited to add this new and detailed oriented element to the Cal Poly Rose Float!

A Typical Day In The Life Of A Float

On October 22nd the San Luis Obispo Rose Float Team moved the back half of the 2012 float to Pomona. The Team has been hard at work in construction the float: the murals have been painted, the letters are sealed and painted, and the tall and collapsing building are already on the float. Stay tuned for more updates!

Click on the link at the top of the page to view the progress “To The Rescue!”

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly Rose Float is proud to present this year’s float: “TO THE RESCUE!” which will make it’s debut on January 2nd down Colorado Blvd in Pasadena. The Rose Float team started the year off by hosting a concept contest. After a grueling day of discussing and voting on over 100 entries, we narrowed it down to our top five with “To The Rescue!” as our first choice. This concept was submitted by a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student and Rose Float alumni, Kelsey Chistoffels. Another Rose Float and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo alumni, Brandon Schmiedeberg was enlisted to draw the official rendering of “To The Rescue!”. Rendering details and main colors were edited and changed with the suggestions of the Rose Float team before it was proposed to Rose Parade officials for approval. This year’s float symbolizes the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade Theme of “Just Imagine” in the midst of a Californian cityscape. The float embodies a creative and youthful imagination that is depicted as a scene from a comic book. Packed with action, this year’s float has three superheroes saving the city from disasters: a falling building, an out of control helicopter, and a train that almost plummets off the edge of the float. The superheroes each have their own unique abilities – elasticity, strength, and flight – that they use to save the city. The top of a skyscraper will be over the maximum height requirement and will be able to collapse when needed while traveling. The design will include a real pond with a waterfall and, for the first time in Cal Poly history, murals. In June, we received approval and began the journey of a lifetime. Construction is already underway as the SLO team begins to build the back half of the float. The thirty-foot skyscraper, built by the San Luis Obispo team will be decorated with silver dollar eucalyptus leaf. However, the team is still in the process of securing more steel and design material donations to enhance and improve the presentation of the Cal Poly float. Construction will continue through the Fall until October when both halves of the float will be gloriously reunited. We are using the same on-campus multipurpose fields as last year for planting and harvesting flowers for the float. In addition, we are securing donations from various flower growers throughout California. As usual, we plan on having a stunning variety of organic materials, including strawberries, coconut, roses, potatoes, cat litter, snapdragons, and lilies. Since the birth of the Rose Float program in 1949, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona have been bridging the 240 mile gap to produce the only student built float in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA. On October 22, 2011 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will be moving the back half of the float to Pomona to officially unite both the float
and the teams. Until Parade Day, the team will be working nonstop in creating a float to inspire, impress, and wow Rose Float members, alumni, the judges, and millions of live viewers from around the world. Stay tuned for the next installment of “TO THE RESCUE!”

The rendering for the 2012 Cal Poly Rose Float

Hello to all who are interested in Rose Float.

This past weekend was something special. We had a short lab day, showed a lot of people what actually takes place on the weekends, and then headed to the hills. Our first annual SLO Mini Retreat took place Saturday night – Sunday morning. Nearly 40 people participated in the camping trip to Paso Robles. It was a fun time had by all as we played mafia around a warm campfire, headed for a few morning strolls around the lake, and a lot of team building and getting to know one another.

I wanted to give a brief update as to what took place at lab as well as some of the tasks to come before move down. Just so you know, everything in red is a goal for completion before move down (Friday October 22)

SUPERVISOR KID
* The head has begun being carved. It should be finished by the time we move down to Pomona.
* No shaping of the body has been done as of yet.

FLYING KID
* The head has been completely sealed and has a base coat of paint on it. The detailed painting will happen by move down.
* The flagthat he is holding is now complete
* The mini rocket that he is holding has begun getting painted.
* No shaping of the body has been done as of yet.
* He has been ghetto-rigged to the crane to test the mobility of the crane with the kid hanging from it.

PLANET
* The bottom of the planet has been cut to fit onto the pod (over the engine). Both hemispheres will be attached to each other after the base is mounted to the frame.
* The top of the planet (where the platform for the supervisor girl goes) still needs to be done.
* The placement has been finalized. The main supports have been built and mounted to the frame. The planet will be mounted by move down.

CRANE
* The crane is built and on the float. It will need to come down for move down but the positioning will be used to possibly start the blocks.
* We tested the rotation of the crane. It looks VERY COOL when rotating.

‘ROVERTO’ the ROVER
* The eyes have been figured out but not yet attached.
* The wheels have been attached.
* The rover will be complete (and hopefully screened) by move down.

STARS
* There are 12 stars completed (6 12″ stars and 6 24″ stars)
* The attachments have been figured out. These will have their attachments to the pod done by move down.

CAL POLY UNIVERSITIES BLOCKS
* These blocks have been made, painted, and are ready for move down.
* The bar attachments to the backs of the blocks have been cut to size and just need to be attached. These will be done by move down.

GALACTIC EXPEDITION TITLE
* I began drawing it out this past weekend. These will be cut and painted by move down.

FLOWER FIELDS
* The flower fields are in full force right now. The heat wave from last week provided us with a completely bloomed field. We have pink, purple, violet, yellow, and white statice.
* We had a lot of our new volunteers go into the fields and harvest. These plants are being dried and we have begun processing.
* Our agapanthus are dry and have begun processing and blending of this. It is a long, tedious process, but the output is a nice color.
* Our first 3 flats of marigolds were picked up and should be planted sometime this week. They are going to ultimately be dried as well.

As you can see, there is a LOT going on right now. If you are interested in helping out at all, please feel free to join us at lab again this Saturday for a full day’s work (10AM-5PM) or any portion in between. Lunch is provided for those who work a few hours.

Need help finding our lab? Stop by the Rose Float Office in the UU next to the Craft Center. We have directional cards for you to take back to your dorm/apartment and share with others!

This past Rose Float work weekend was extremely productive both in lab and in the field! A few weeks have passed since we first tended to our rows of growing static and strawflower, and on Saturday morning, I ventured out to find myself almost waist deep in weeds! Expecting an all day field adventure, both Kaylyn and I were very surprised to watch the field dramatically shrink as this year’s Rose Float Team attacked with full force. After removing almost all of the larger weeds, we left the rest of the work to the CP Organic Farm tractor. We are really looking forward to the next few weeks, and hope to see blooming statice flowers when we return again in the Fall!

This past weekend was a very productive one for the Cal Poly Rose Float Team! Along with the many projects going on in the Rose Float lab, the team was hard at work tending to the weeds that have accumulated in our flower field since we planted earlier this summer. Arriving at the field early sunday morning, we were greeted with the lovely site of around 2,00 statice plugs growing well in their beds in the Organic Farm field. With a little over an hour of weeding, we managed to almost compleatly clean our rows of all weeds! With the field now looking fatastic, we are ready to go untill our next summer lab weekend when we will once again venture out and remove those pesky weeds. Thank you everyone who participated this weekend and I hope you enjoyed the ice-cream treats

This coming thursday, July 15th @ 3:30pm, we will be planting a second round of strawflower in the field. Any one available in SLO for the summer is welcome to come out and join!

Earth laughs in flowers.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Hamatreya”

I found this quote and had to agree! The last two Friday mornings have been filled with flowers and laughs in our field at the Horticulture Unit on campus. This past fall quarter we tediously planted hundreds of mum and celosia plugs. As January 1st rolled around, our celosia found its way onto our float, but the mums decided otherwise They have been sitting patiently in our field ever since, and this past Friday, we finished collecting all the stragglers. Kaylyn Keller, Brandon Schmeideberg, Nathan Cheadle, and I spent the morning weeding, harvesting, and placing our flower filled buckets into a cooler for safe keeping. Despite our mum’s lack of appearance on parade day, they will still make their public debut Sat. February 27^th at our banquet.

Looking ahead, we are hoping to plant our next field in early April and harvest at the end of spring quarter 2010! Stay tuned for more updates!

yellow button mums

Kaylyn with button mums

Brandon harvesting white spider mums

Nathan and Kaylyn weeding and harvesting

Kaylyn Keller harvesting mums