With hundreds of volunteers on duty to help decorate floats, there were other Kiwanis volunteers who did support work. The volunteers had to be fed.

Kiwanis clubs in Southern California donate their time to provide lunch and dinner for the float decorators.

It's a time-consuming, labor-intensive challenge. But thanks to Margo Dutton and other coordinators, the job is handled efficiently.

The actual float-decoration experience is not all fun and games. Volunteers work hard to complete the floats.

It is required that all visible areas of the floats be comprised of flowers, stems or seeds. The flowers must be applied during the final hours before the parade.Tens of thousands of flowers are delivered to the professional float-building companies.

Many of the hardiest flowers can be removed from their stems and glued right on the floats.

Other more delicate flowers-with a shorter blooming span-are placed in individual vials of water. These are then stuck into foam covering the float.