The Public is Invited to Be There for the 2020 Grand Petite Parade on Saturday, June 6
Three area grade school art teachers took the Rose Festival’s Parading in Place Grand Petite Parade concept into the virtual classroom, and turned it into a two week assignment for each student to build their own shoebox float. The students were also encouraged — along with their families — to register their creations in the Rose Festival’s Grand Petite Parade for the Saturday, June 6 video streaming presentation on Facebook Live.
Ingrid Parmeter, Art Teacher at The Madeleine School, got the idea from the Rose Festival’s Parading in Place campaign, and shared it with other art teachers in the community.
“I’ve always loved the Rose Festival parades,” said Ms. Parmeter. “My mother told me that in her youth, people would go down the night before the Grand Floral Parade and help decorate floats. With that communal spirit in mind, the Petite Parade offered our families the chance to ‘decorate a float’ together. Many of my students pooled their efforts and even got their parents involved. Some floats were made of things from the kitchen; some were made entirely from the backyard or recycling bin. All of the floats were a chance for families to be creative during a difficult time.”
“Art class is considered ‘enrichment’ during Covid-19, but the kids that followed the assignment did a wonderful job, and were so excited,” said Leslee Lukosh, Art Educator, Holy Redeemer Catholic School. “Parents are grateful to have their kids occupied in creative endeavors. I approached the assignment as an opportunity for the students to be involved as float builders, instead of just observers. I shared with them several examples of shoebox floats from other parades around the world.”
“St. Rose School in NE Portland traditionally marches in the Fred Meyer Junior Parade,” said Sue Beede, Artist in Residence, “We are located right around the corner of the parade route! So, because we would miss our Junior Parade tradition this year, I thought I’d offer the Petite Float Project as an Art enrichment assignment. What your contest gave us was an opportunity to participate and celebrate in a special way the 2020 Rose Festival Season with creativity and joy!”
Although they were unable to say how many families also registered with the Rose Festival’s Grand Petite Parade, each of the teachers have assembled a slide presentation of their students’ submissions and have made those available to the families via an online link.
THE GRAND PETITE PARADE will feature shoe box-size floats created by community members, a celebration of marching bands, equestrian units, and other Rose Festival parade favorites. Just like the early Rose Festival parades that used Portlanders’ own roses to decorate the floats, participants were invited to use materials from home to build shoe box parade floats, and submit a photograph or video for a June 6 video streaming presentation. Viewers do not need a Facebook account to watch the Facebook Live streaming event (use link provided below).
WHAT: Grand Petite Parade
WHERE: https://www.facebook.com/PortlandRoseFestival/live...DATE: Saturday, June 6
TIME: 2:00 p.m.
INFO: Grand Petite Parade
RoseFestival.orgFacebook: PortlandRoseFestival/
Twitter: @PDXRoseFestival
Instagram: @PDXRoseFestival
CONTACT:
Ingrid Parmeter
Art Teacher, The Madeleine School
iparmeter@themadeleine.edu
Sue Beede
Artist in Residence, St. Rose School
sbeede@strosepdx.org
Leslee Lukosh
Art Educator
Holy Redeemer Catholic School
llukosh@holyredeemerpdx.org