By Ventura County Star
“Don’t worry if they’re not perfect — enjoy the process,” Bonnie Atmore told a roomful of apron-wearing, glue-wielding, rice-spreading employees of Dole Packaged Foods who gathered recently in a large second-floor conference room at its Westlake Village headquarters.
Sprawled over several long tables were containers of glue, bags of rice, paintbrushes and the objects of the workers’ attention: canvas-draped flower frames the workers — representing all levels of Dole Packaged Foods’ 250 employees — were carefully turning into decorations for Dole’s “Spirit of Hawaii” entry in the Jan. 2 Tournament of Roses Parade.
Soon, plumerias would be shipped for final assembly to form a lei around the perimeter of the colorful float that will be seen by an expected 75 million television viewers around the world as it glides along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.
And that — more than the possibility of winning an award, although Dole floats have won awards in the Rose Parade each of the past six years — is what most excites the float decorators.
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