Jan. 17 — City should help with Daffodil float’s new home

Puyallup volunteers have designed the 2008 community float and the crew is ready to start working. All that’s missing is a place to actually build the float for the 75th annual Daffodil parade in April.

The building where they have built the float for the past 20 years, which also housed the Puyallup food bank, was torn down this week. The food bank was able to find a new home, but so far the community float has had no such luck.

Float organizers are keeping their fingers crossed that someone will step forward by mid-February to donate the large space it takes to build the beast. If not, Puyallup must cancel its participation because, according to Daffodil Festival guidelines, the city cannot enter any princesses without a float. That means princess candidates from Puyallup, Emerald Ridge and Rogers would miss out on an opportunity every year until the city finds a home for the community float.

A temporary solution would solve this year’s problem, but the float volunteers can’t be expected to beg every year. They need a permanent home.

That will take city involvement. Float organizers are hoping the city can donate a piece of land and use funds from the hotel/motel tax, which supports tourism-building organizations, to build a building. If the city doesn’t have any available land, it could purchase it with hotel/motel funds and the float organization could raise its own funds for a building.

Keeping Puyallup’s participation in the Daffodil Festival alive makes a worthy city endeavor. The Daffodil Festival started in the valley and is ingrained in the history of this community. After 75 years, it would be an embarrassment for Puyallup to suddenly drop the tradition.