Ellwood 'Float Builders' have been working together for nearly a decade
ELLWOOD CITY — Float builders Bill Gilkey and Ed Brown of Ellwood City are all about building floats for parades.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world of large gatherings, the floats were on hold.
They're back. Recently, they won first place in the Zelienople Halloween Parade, and they were glad to be back in their happy place seeing parade viewers.
Ellwood is not having a parade this year, and they won't have a float in the Wampum Christmas parade, but Gilkey will be riding his decorated motorcycle dressed as the infamous Grinch. Gilkey is also volunteering as one of the Santas for Christmas in the Park.
More: Wampum ready to host the biggest Christmas parade in the county Dec. 4
Gilkey has a lot to say about the floats they have built, but the ones coming up are a secret until the parade.
About seven years ago, the men met when Gilkey's son, Patrick, and Brown's daughter, Emily, were members of the Lincoln High School Blue Band.
As members of the Band Boosters, the two men wanted to do something for the group and began building a float in Gilkey's driveway on a 24-foot trailer that Will Fox, also of Ellwood City, let them borrow.
Their first build was Frankenstein's laboratory and as with all floats, the structure had to be bolted down, and the men got caught up in the fun of it with Gilkey playing Frankenstein and Fox as Dracula and Brown as the Wolf Man.
They were happy with their float but disappointed when they did not receive a prize. When Gilkey questioned why they didn't get a prize, the answer was because they didn't have children on the float.
"I explained that we couldn't have children on the float because they were marching in the band and we resolved the issue," Gilkey said.
Always innovative and adaptive, the men turned Frankenstein's laboratory into a gingerbread house for the Christmas parade. Since the floats were also entered in the Wampum Christmas parade, the float had to be in Wampum by 11 a.m. for the judging and then be in the parade and get back in time to be in the Ellwood parade.
"We like the Wampum parade. It is really a long parade and we can throw out candy," Gilkey said.
When it is all over, the men strip down the float and have a very big bonfire that Gilkey describes as "one heck of a bonfire."
The only thing left of the floats is the gingerbread house because a man took the gingerbread house and continues to use it as a chicken coop.
The stunning white and gold castle with turrets and a drawbridge, another award winner, had people in the castle including Brown as a knight and Gilkey as a gargoyle.
"We are competitive; we want to win and we have fun doing it. All the prize money goes to the Blue Band Boosters," Gilkey said.
When they were invited to bring their float to the Zelienople Light Up Night, they had the adventure of driving the float from Ellwood City to Zelienople and back, and enjoyed the surprised looks from other motorists.
"Zelienople is a small parade but we were glad we were there, and we enjoyed it because people were so pumped to see the float and that gets us excited," Gilkey said.
Some float ideas just come to them. When the Cub Scout Pack in Ellwood City gave them a 12-foot diameter flying saucer, they turned into a wrecked alien spaceship at Area 51 in the Nevada desert complete with strobe lights and aliens.
"When we are building a float we just get overwhelmed with it, caught up in it, and it is fun," Gilkey said.
Trying to keep expenses to a minimum, Brown saves all his discarded lumber, Busy Beaver donates the flawed lumber they can't sell and Sherwin Williams donates paint.
"Ed Brown is an artist who turns one thing into another. When the Cub Scouts gave us a dragon, Ed turned it into a lion sitting down," Gilkey said.
After the Ellwood City Christmas Parade, the float becomes a part of the Christmas in the Park display.
Gilkey is the Voice of the Blue Band and both men are band chaperones for away games.
As for ideas, they just get together and brainstorm far-out ideas and find that one idea will soon become a float, but they're not telling what they're thinking or what it is going to be. You have to wait and see. They are hoping that Ellwood City will have a Christmas parade next year.
This article originally appeared on Ellwood City Ledger: Ellwood 'Float Builders' work for parades
