Float Preparation Continues In Irwindale For 2015 Tournament Of Roses Parade

IRWINDALE (CBSLA.com) — Organizers and volunteers gathered Saturday morning to continue working on the creation of floats for the 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade.

This year's theme is focused around inspiring stories.

KCAL9's Joy Benedict spoke with Cliff Meidl of Digalert 811, who shared how his traumatic story related to the company float's theme for the parade.

Meidl explained he worked on a construction site when he was a young kid, where he wound up jack hammering some power lines that were not marked underneath the ground.

"I nearly had both my legs amputated," added Meidl. "You don't want to fool with electricity. I ended up having a cardiac arrest because it was an excess of 30,000 volts of electricity racing through my body."

Digalert 811's float includes two dogs which are used to alert workers of unmarked lines underground to prevent them from getting electrocuted.

"I had a huge adversity to go through, but it bodes well with the story we are trying to get out, which is to get people to be aware of calling before you dig," Meidl said.

Benedict explained the volunteers have about four more days to finish affixing thousands of flowers and arrangements on the parade floats.

The Fiesta Parade float lineup for this years parade will include Miracle-Gro, Kaiser Permanente, City of Torrance, Underground Service Alert, Aids Healthcare Foundation, Keihl's Since 1851, Northwestern Mutual, The Bachelor, The Royal Court and Dole Packaged Foods.