The float will feature a garden setting, designed by veteran float builder Daniel E. Tierney.
Richard Dupuis, vice president of the Holyoke Parade Committee, works on the Grand Colleen Float for the 2012 Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade.
Don TreegerThis year, Holyoke’s St. Patrick’s Parade Grand Colleen Brianna M. Fitz, will be riding in style, with her court, in a garden setting designed by veteran float builder Daniel E. Tierney.
Fitz will be seated in a gazebo setting while her court, Kelly W. Donahoe, Allison B. Lapointe, Kelli A. Laramee and Juliette R. Chenier, will be seated in a trellis like pugola, in front of her.
The float, again the brain-child of Tierney and his fellow float-builder of 26 years, Richard Dupuis, will be decorated in green and white and gold and will be a stand out in this year’s parade on March 18.
Tierney, who has been associated with the parade for 60 of the 61 years the celebration has existed, said there will be about 40 floats in this year’s march and added as he usually does, “Floats make a parade.”
The gazebo was built in Pennsylvania by Amish people and is “the real thing,“ according to Dupuis.
Dupuis, who is vice president of the parade committee this year and will be president next year, owns his own company, Pool Tech in Holyoke and since that business is seasonal, he has time to devote to the annual Colleen float and others that he an Tierney devise.
This year the duo is also doing a float for Holyoke Medical Center consisting of a replica of a 1924 Model T Ford ambulance replete with lights and sirens and a horn. Behind the replica will be benches with the street signs for High and Dwight, a downtown crossroads.
Tierney, who took over the float work from the late Vincent Brown many years ago, has had at least one, and sometimes more, floats in the parade ever since.
Tierney and his wife Marian do much of the planning and creation of the ideas for the float and Dupuis and his aide David Lumbra, do most of the creative work.
Tierney and Dupuis have won many parade awards for their work and they are hoping for more this year with their creations.
The work on the floats is being done at the Holyoke Gas and Electric Department facility on Walnut Street.
“We have to thank the G&E for their continual support. This place is just very conducive to our work,“ Dupuis said.
Tierney said the work of designing and building such a float takes several months so it can be ready for the parade.
He added that Elms College’s Irish Cultural Center, St. Mary’s of Westfield, the district Girl Scout organization and the Chicopee Moose Lodge will be new entrants in the float portion of the parade this year.
“Ours, Holyoke Medical Center, South Hadley, the various colleen floats and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, are the standbys. We are all in it every year,” Tierney said.
Dupuis added that the floats help to enhance the beauty of the parade and “generally, people just love them.”