Tim Considine cuts a sheet of pressure-treated plywood for the floor of the hay wagon trailer that’s the base for the Agawam St. Patrick’s Committee’s parade float. Holding the plywood are Todd Arslanian (left) and Frank Benson.
Reminder Publishing photo by Mike Lydick
AGAWAM — The 2025 Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade will be the first time in five years that the Agawam St. Patrick’s Committee will have a completely new float rolling through the streets of the Paper City.
The last time the committee built an entirely new parade float was for the 2020 parade. When the 2020 and 2021 parades were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the float was stored behind Sarat Ford for two years. It was then refurbished for the 2022 parade — which was the last time the committee entered a float in the parade.
The committee had been building floats at Six Flags New England for many years, but lost that space in 2022. It was able to make needed repairs to the 2020 float when the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield offered space in its Farm-A-Rama building for three weekends before the parade.
Once the fairgrounds fully reopened after COVID-19, it had no buildings available for the committee. Without a place to build a new parade float, the committee decided to rent a green and white horse-drawn carriage to carry the colleen and her court along the parade route for the 2023 and 2024 parades.
Doug Reed, who heads up the float building committee, has been involved in building the parade floats for more than a decade. He said the committee is still optimistic that it can find a new build site in the future.
“But after two years of not building floats, we knew that regardless of not being able to secure a build site, it was necessary to return to our tradition of constructing a float for the colleen and her court,” said Reed. “I’m glad we’re back doing this.”
The floats — which the colleen and her court also ride on for Agawam’s Memorial Day parade — have won numerous first-place awards in past years at the Holyoke parade. Reed and a crew of about seven volunteers from the committee are directly involved in constructing the new float that’s built on a hay wagon trailer. The remainder of the committee helps with sourcing supplies and materials.
The theme for the 2025 float is “Rockin’ with the Colleen: An Irish Musical Journey.” Ideas for possible themes were discussed at a monthly meeting until the committee agreed on this one.
“The group involved in building the floats then suggests further design ideas, which will continue to evolve during construction,” added Reed.
“It’s not easy, but we’re making it work,” he said. “Our biggest challenge this year was a flood in our town-supplied materials storage space. Many of our fasteners, paints and a motor drive unit we had built for our animatronics were discarded. The cold winter weather and heating the build space with a portable heater also has been difficult.”
Construction began in January and will continue until March 22 — the day before this year’s parade. The float is being built in two sections — components in Reed’s garage and the trailer base in the garage of Todd Arslanian, another committee member.
“Building components in one location and assembling everything in another isn’t all that difficult,” said Reed. “We will just bring the trailer to my garage for the final assembly.” He estimates it will take about 100 hours of working mostly on weekends to have the float ready for parade day.
“Because our previous float had been stored outside, we had to completely dismantle it so we could redeck the floor and replace the sides of the trailer,” Reed said. The 21-foot-long trailer required more than 50 sheets of pressure-treated plywood — at $53 a sheet — to replace the trailer’s old and rotted plywood.
According to Reed, the committee has a budget of $2,000 for building the float — and the goal for this year is to come in under budget. The committee received a $1,500 grant from the Agawam Cultural Council to build the new float. They’re also getting some discounts for supplies from local businesses to help with construction costs.
He said the most important thing about the committee’s float is that it’s built for the colleen and her court. “It’s their float. That’s why we do it. Our floats are built especially for their parade experience. We keep the float a secret so we can surprise them.”
Reed said building the float is challenging and somewhat stressful. “But it’s so gratifying to see the smiles when on their faces on parade morning when they realize we built the float especially for them.”
