DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE - Ingenuity is what's needed when the plan for a float calls for a whole bison and all you have is a mounted head.

Overcoming that obstacle helped an Evergreen Forestry crew take first place in the organization category in the Mackenzie Days parade. Luke Elleze, Greg Elleze, Tony Gargan, Eric Nadli and Darcy Bonnetrouge put their heads together on July 30, the day before the parade, to decide how to make a float that would fit the event's "On the land" theme.

Ingenuity helped an Evergreen Forestry crew take first placein the organization category at the Mackenzie Days parade in Fort Providence. Crew members include, from left, Greg Elleze, Tony Gargan, Eric Nadli, Darcy Bonnetrouge and crew leader Luke Elleze. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

The mounted head of a bison borrowed from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources provided the spark of inspiration.

"We decided to make a big game hunt out of it," said Greg.

In the back of a pick-up truck the crew built a drying rack completed with assorted camp gear. On a trailer they fashioned the hunt scene complete with the big game - a bison.

Having just a bison head, however, wasn't going to do so the crew used a wooden table, some spare wood and an old brown canvas tarp to fashion a body. After affixing the head to the front and pinning a tail on the back, the float's star attraction was born.

The forestry crew members weren't the only people who displayed creativity while putting together their float. Joyce McLeod together with Leonie Sabourin spent more than five hours assembling the float that won first place in the family category at the parade.

"They said it was 'On the land' so I thought of a wood house," said McLeod.

The finished tableau included a drying rack complete with pickerel and jackfish and a small wooden house with smoke snaking out the chimney. The smoke was the product of a small wood stove containing a fire of rotten wood and dry bison patties. Dressed up as an old man and an old woman, sisters Shanita and Shannel Landry sat between the two structures on the float.

"We had lots of fun doing it," McLeod said.

The excitement of the parade is what drew Darlene McLeod to enter a float. McLeod took third place in the family category after transforming her Chevy truck into a giant salmon.

McLeod has made a tradition of completely covering her vehicle every year and entering it as a float. This year applying green, red and white crepe paper along with a tail to the truck took four hours. Last year, turning her truck into an airplane with wings took two days.

Sometimes the smaller parade entries take the longest time. Sylvia Nadli spent just under a week turning a three-wheeled stroller into a white teepee to take first place in the stroller category. Harvesting and lashing the sticks together to make the teepee frame took awhile, Nadli said.

In the end it's all for fun.

"I just love working on things especially when it comes to floats," said Nadli.