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Iowa City IA Press

Hawkeye fans help build Rose Parade floats

Sherman told The Gazette. “We were so excited Iowa was going to be here.” Although Sherman and Iowa City Hy-Vee employee Laurel Hollopeter, 55, of Victor, are the only Iowa residents working for Fiesta — among the largest builders of floats for the parade — others with Iowa ties have their hands involved in the intricate and elaborate floral arrangements on some of the 40-plus parade floats. And, Sherman said, they all stand out this year. “Everyone is noticing the Iowa people,” she said. This is the eighth year Hollopeter has headed west to help prepare floats for the parade, but this will be just his second game. And he bought the tickets months ago on a hunch. “When we purchased our tickets back in September, Iowa was doing well and I had this feeling,” he said. “I had an inkling they would be going.” Hollopeter, a floral manager for Hy-Vee, said his love affair with flowers blossomed decades ago — he began working in the field in 1979 and attended Kirkwood Community College for horticulture. Helping with floral float arrangements was an outgrowth of his passion. “It was just something I always wanted to do,” he said. Hollopeter does parade work only once a year — for the Rose Parade — and every float he’s worked on has won some type of prize, including the grand prize sweepstakes. This year, Hollopeter is working on the Fiesta-backed Dole Packaged Foods float that has chosen the theme “soaring in paradise” in conjunction with the larger parade theme of “Find Your Adventure.” The detailed floral work involves tropical flowers decorated in a sort of jungle motif, with elephants, lions, leopards, and snakes mixed in, Hollopeter said. According to Rose Parade officials, float preparations actually begin almost immediately after the previous year’s parade ends. The pr... http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/hawkeye-fans-help-build-rose-parade-floats-20151230