BUTTE - Anybody who knows Darlene Battaiola knows she goes over the top when it comes to decorating for the holidays and this year she is going big for this year’s Fourth of July parade.
“I’m sorry, but a semi and eight balloons does not a float make, in my opinion,” Darlene Battaiola said.
WATCH: Butte's Fourth of July parade is Saturday, and one local woman spent three weeks building not one, but TWO floats to bring back the tradition
For Darlene, a float is an actual float.Just like the ones she remembers on Butte’s 4th of July past when she was a little girl.
“And there was float after float after float, every merchant, every bank, every business had a gorgeous float in the parade. And that just isn’t the case anymore, and it’s sad,” Battaiola said.
She and her crew spent the past three weeks building not one, but two floats – one for the Fourth and one for the Serbian Food Festival on Aug. 8th. Her crew enjoys the work.
“It’s a lot of work, it’s very tiring, but at the end of the day,it’s also very fulfilling,” Riley Butori said.
She is building a cityscape-themed float for the Fourth. Although they made did make the star a little too tall.
“At first,we were afraid we wouldn’t get under the bridges. Well, we can get under the bridges, but we can’t get out of the warehouse,” Battaiola said.
They’ll have to shorten the star to get it out, but Tim Ryan doesn’t mind the extra work.
“A lot of blood, sweat and tears and burns with the wax and glue, but we’ll survive. We’ve got a lot of Band-ads,” Ryan said.
The parade starts at 10a.m. July4that the Butte Civic Center and heads south on Harrison Avenue. There are about 125 organizations participating this year.
