YOUR AD HERE »

Winners engineeringenious entriesat festival parade

by Christine Dell'Amore

Between a replicated mine shaft, a live steam engine and a parade of painted pigs, little was left to the imagination at the Strawberry Days parade on Saturday.”There wasn’t anything else that compared to it,” said coordinator Cori Rider of her first-place float in the nonprofit and service category, sponsored by the New Creation Church Children’s Ministry in Glenwood Springs. Rider and her husband, Trevor, helped artist Stevan Rodriguez turn a pickup truck into an old-fashioned steam engine. Their team used foam boards to build mine shaft beams, which towered over ore carts filled with gold.Second-place winners in the nonprofit category, the Roaring Fork Valley Model Railroad Club, brought a coal-fired steam engine built by club President Dick Maddock. The engine has also appeared in Silt’s Heyday Parade, where it won first place, said Eric Walter, club secretary.”We were really happy; we thought it was a good showing. With the work we put in it, we were satisfied,” Walter said.Alpine Bank, which won first place in the commercial category, entered a procession of 15 colorfully painted pigs, part of the bank’s literacy project.Mason & Morse Real Estate received second place in the commercial category for five ATVs-turned-train cars. The team built wooden frames and laid them on top of the ATVs, said Sharon Stephenson, property manager at Mason & Morse.”We had 400 balloons, a week of sleepless nights, and we’re just so honored to get second,” she said.All the events of Strawberry Days were free this year, keeping with its goal of trying to get the festival back to the idea of being a family festival, said Marianne Virgili, executive director of the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association.”The parade was great. People really got into the theme of the 100th anniversary of the train depot,” Virgili said.Contact Christine Dell’Amore 945-8515, ext. 535cdellamore@postindependent.com


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.