Creative design, floral craftsmanship, artistic merit, computerized animation, thematic interpretation, floral and color presentation and dramatic impact.
Each year, the judges for the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, use that criteria to score each float.
They are reviewed during judging sessions that take place as part of the decorating stages, and the scores determine the 23 trophy recipients.
For the 134th parade Jan. 2, Irwindale, California-based Fiesta Parade Floats, which has been a part of the parade for 34 years, earned six of the awards.
The Sweepstakes Trophy, the most beautiful entry encompassing float design, floral presentation and entertainment, was presented to Donate Life.
For two other awards, two Jackson County men — Bobby Eldridge of Seymour and Blake Hackman of Brownstown — were among a 10-member team that did the floral work on the floats.
Louisiana Travel’s float won the Showmanship Award for most outstanding display of showmanship and entertainment, and the Building Industry Association of Southern California’s float won the Past President Award for most outstanding innovation in the use of floral and nonfloral materials.
Eldridge, who owns Prestigious Affairs in Seymour and Brownstown Greenhouse and Gifts in Brownstown with his wife, Dawn, has worked on Rose Parade floats since 2003 and won numerous awards.
Hackman, the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Brownstown Central High School, was part of Eldridge’s team for the second year in a row.
“I can honestly say that I had the best team ever, and that made the process much easier,” Eldridge said, as he and Michael Gaddie of Louisville, Kentucky, were the lead designers.
“Even though Mike and are lead designers, we still get in there and grind with everybody else,” Eldridge said. “Even when it got down to the grind and the hours got late and I tried to get them to go home, they just refused to go home, like the no man left behind type deal. They stuck with me until the end, so I cannot ask for a better team than what I had. I was very pleased with the outcome.”
Hackman said he was proud to be asked to help by such qualified and talented individuals who make up the team. Eldridge, Gaddie, Bridget Joslin and Doug Bates all have credentials with the American Institute of Floral Designers.
“I am also proud of the awards that we received, but when you see the floats in person, you understand,” Hackman said. “Our floats were, according to Bobby, dripping in flowers. Many are covered in dry materials.”
As a child, Hackman said he would watch the parade on television. He, however, never would have thought he would see it in person or help create the floats.
“It just goes to show the remarkable things one can accomplish in their life,” he said. “I am truly blessed with great friends who allow these experiences to happen for me.”
For millions of people around the world, the Rose Parade is an iconic New Year’s Day tradition leading up to the annual Rose Bowl college football game, according to tournamentofroses.com.
The parade travels 5½ miles down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena and features four types of entries: Floral-decorated floats entered by a participating corporation, nonprofit organization or municipality, equestrian units, bands and tournament entries.
Each year, Eldridge said the sponsor of the float owner meets with the float builder to come up with a concept, and an artist creates a rendering. Around mid-October, Eldridge receives the rendering.
“I know there’s another side, so everything is times two,” he said. “I take Post-it Notes and I cut it up. … I dissect it down to areas, and I do spreadsheets per area on what it takes to bring this to life. There are only a few of us that have floral input on everything, so as I broke these down into areas, I made what we call floral recipes to create, to bring this to life.”
Mike Aboud designed both of the floats Eldridge and Hackman worked on.
The “Feed Your Soul” Louisiana-themed and steamboat-styled Celebration Riverboat float featured a spinning paddle wheel and carried 21 of the state’s fair and festival queens and a former Shriners Hospital patient. Louisiana native and country music singer Lainey Wilson also was on board and performed along with a band and the Rose Parade Dancers.
Eldridge said there were around 30 different types of flowers on the 55-foot-long, 30-plus-foot-tall float, and he and his team completed their work in two days.
“It was perfect. I would not have changed one thing. I think we were able to pull off everything we needed,” he said. “There were 30 raquettes (large arrangements) just around the top to create that impact, to kind of bring your eye to the top.”
He said the floral package helped the float win an award. That included white orchids being placed near the paddle wheel so when it turned and hit the flowers, that created an effect of splashing water.
“We used the best of the best,” Eldridge said. “We had flowers imported to create the various looks. You’re working with lavenders and pinks — lavender orchids and pink orchids and white orchids and pink anthuriums and green anthuriums — high-ticket items to pull this off.”
Eldridge said the team was very proud to receive the Showmanship Award.
“In particular because having access to it for only two days, we had to get a lot done in two days,” he said. “We were able to work off the float. We put a couple tables together, and I put up scaffolding boards, so we worked waist level and we created stuff and we filled about three refrigeration trucks full of various arrangements. Then when we gained access to it, it was just application, installing everything.”
The theme for the Building Industry Association of Southern California’s float was “Building for the Future,” focusing on the past, present and future in celebrating the organization’s 100th anniversary.
The past was represented by what the team called grandma’s house on the back, the present was represented by her son’s square modern house in the middle and the future was represented by her grandchild’s very minimal futuristic house. A girl who is an aspiring architect lies near that looking at house plans.
Eldridge said the flowers were all done in color blocking, and there also were water elements on each side, an infinity pool on the front, fabricated rocks and various types of dried materials.
“The color blocking was photographed beautifully,” he said. “Then plus, we took dogwood branches and created some really cool lines. We matched everything to the buildings so everything blended. Dry material and fresh material blended nicely together.”
In all, there were 39 floats, 21 marching bands and 16 equestrian units in the parade. FTD, the official floral company and sponsor of the float awards, decorated the antique automobiles that carried the parade VIPs down Colorado Boulevard, including the grand marshals, Tournament of Roses president, mayor of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame cars.
The parade is on New Year’s Day unless that holiday falls on a Sunday. Then it’s moved to Jan. 2.
After being inducted into the AIFD, Eldridge, a Crothersville native, received the opportunity to sign a contract with Fiesta Parade Floats and has been invited back each year since to assist with the floral work.
He said it’s nice to represent Jackson County out there.
“It’s shown internationally, so Seymour and Jackson County are represented internationally,” he said. “We represent Jackson County very well. It’s a lot of work, but we enjoy it.”
Even though Hackman broke his ankle last year and was wearing a boot, he still wanted to go help, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Going back again this year, Eldridge joked that it’s now in Hackman’s blood.
“I was tired last year, but nothing like this year,” Hackman said. “It is work. We would start at 8 a.m. every morning that we were working on the floats and not leave until 10 p.m. You basically saw the inside of a warehouse.”
This time was unique because he was promoted to help with design work.
“Well, I was allowed to do what I was told. I am still learning,” he said. “One thing I noticed this year is that you soon get over if you break a stem or have to dispose of many flowers. You just do it.”
Hackman said it again was an amazing activity and experience.
“The experience reminds me of hiking the Grand Canyon. You can’t fully experience it unless you are there,” he said. “The number of flowers is overwhelming. One bouquet could perhaps be the amount that a florist would use in a week. And to think that we did thousands of these in four days.”
When asked if he’s ready to go back for the 135th Rose Parade, Eldridge said, “Yeah, absolutely.”
“We’ll prepare and we’ll start mid-March starting the preparations for ‘23-‘24,” he said. “Then we’ll hit hard in October and get ready to travel in December.”