SEQUIM — Joe Borden took a moment to relax and talk as he sat down on the frilly purple front bumper of the nearly completed 116th Sequim Irrigation Festival float Wednesday.
Those driving by the 1908 Evergreen Farm Barn on North Fifth Avenue got a sneak preview of the float before it is rolled out after 4:45 p.m. Saturday at the Sequim Irrigation Festival kickoff fundraising dinner at 7 Cedars Casino.
Borden was adamantly opposed to letting a photographer capture an image of the entire float, insisting that it not be unveiled until Saturday’s dinner, when festival dignitaries and royalty will be introduced
The dinner in the casino’s Club Seven Lounge also will be the first chance to view this year’s festival lapel pin and to bid on numbered festival pins and other merchandise.
The theme for the 2011 festival, which runs May 6-15, is “One Hundred and Sweet Sixteen.”
The annual dinner, which costs $45 for tickets sold in advance, netted the festival about $8,000 last year.
“Which pretty much takes care of the float and fuel for the rest of the year,” Borden said. “It is our biggest event for fundraising.”
In his 16th year as float boss, Borden was still smiling Wednesday after about 1,000 volunteer hours had been spent since January to make the float pretty, parade-presentable, memorable and durable for at least 13 Western Washington parade appearances.
Now in his 70s, Borden is uncertain how much longer he will lead the float-making team, but he knows exactly why he’s done it since the festival turned 100.
“When I go to a parade and look at the faces of the children and see the look of wonderment, that just gets to my heart,” Borden said.
The cadre of volunteers who help him make it possible feel the same, he said.
They work for free as “ditchwalkers,” who walk beside the float in parades, as well as designers, builders, decorators, welders, mechanics and drivers — whatever it takes to roll the float.
The rising cost of living and fuel prices drive up the expenses for the festival, which is budgeted at about $100,000, leaving about $10,000 at year’s end.
With this year’s Irrigation Festival royalty court onboard — Queen Taylor Willis and Princesses Stephanie Laurie, Abigail Vidals and Marissa Haner — the float will represent Sequim at parades in Issaquah, Marysville, Port Orchard, Shelton, Hoquiam, McCleary and Seattle’s Seafair, as well as in Forks, Port Townsend and Quilcene on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The first parade this year will be at the Tacoma Daffodil Festival on April 9.
“We have to put 2,000 live daffodils on the Sequim float to participate,” Borden said.
The float— driven by Borden’s wife, Tawana — is a colorful chariot on a 1985 Ford LTD station wagon chassis.
It has a four-speaker stereo system, with each amp blasting 12,000 watts.
“We can put out some noise, but when you’re on the parade route, that’s what you want,” Borden said.
Borden joined the festival in 1995 as a float worker and after three years was put in charge of float-building. In 2005, he became festival chairman. This year, he handed those duties to Deon Kapetan, who he believes is what the festival needs in terms of finding new fundraising options.
Borden recalled one bad year for the Irrigation Festival float: 2008.
The float died before the Seafair parade in Seattle, and that year’s royalty walked the parade route in high heels.
That same year, the float was towed into Dosewallips State Park in Brinnon off U.S. Highway 101 when it caught fire and burned. The cause was never pinpointed.
“We stopped to go to the bathroom ,and when I came out, I wondered what somebody was barbecuing because it sure did stink,” Borden said.
“Then, I saw black smoke coming from out of the top of the float.”
Tickets to Saturday’s kickoff are available at KeyBank, 120 N. Dunlap St.; Sound Community Bank, 541 N. Fifth Ave.; Solar City’s Tesa Boutique & Tanning Retreat, 135 W. Washington St.; Frick’s Healthcare-Medical Equipment-Photo, 609 W. Washington St.; and the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center, 1192 E. Washington St.
To volunteer, phone 360-461-6511 or email floatdisplay@IrrigationFestival.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.