The Hyack Festival Association’s “mini float” picked up an award at the recent Grand Floral Parade in Portland, Oregon.
The mini-float, designed by local artist and Hyack director Theresa Henry-Smith, won the Queen’s Award for Best Decorated in the parade’s mini float category. It features the Pacific Dogwood and used all organic materials (a mandatory requirement of the parade) including birch bark, chrysanthemums, baby’s breath, coloured rice and coconut, carnations, roses, ivy, amaranthus seeds, ferns and other plantings – all in keeping with Hyack president Bryn Ward’s 2018 theme of Rooted in Tradition and Blossoming into the Future.
“Hyack princess Chanel De Capite rode the Hyack float along the four-mile parade route, introducing the Royal City of New Westminster to close to 450,000 appreciative sidewalk spectators and a television audience of approximately 2.5 million viewers,” said a press release from Hyack.
Hyack makes the mini-float specifically for Portland Rose Festival Parade as its regular float doesn’t meet requirements of using all organic and floral decorations. The “skirt” frame, which is built on top of a golf cart, is reused annually and redecorated to coordinate with Hyack’s current theme.
Work on the float is very time-consuming and labour intensive, but Hyack’s Deb Wardle said the long weeks of work were worth it because the Hyack mini-float was both a crowd and judge pleaser.
