WKSU News: A family that sticks together

Friday, June 15, 2012 A family that sticks together Ninth annual duct tape parade brings together Avonites who love duct tape by WKSU's KABIR BHATIA	Reporter Kabir Bhatia

The infamous peacock, and beakless flamingo

Courtesy of K. Bhatia

In The Region:

It’s used for everything from crude repairs to making costumes... And the ubiquitous duct tape is celebrated each year with adhesive-centric parades, sculptures and games in Avon, home of Duck-brand duct tape. WKSU’s Kabir Bhatia reports on the ninth annual Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival, celebrating both the town and its signature product.

A family that sticks together

Other options:

Windows Media /

MP3 Download (2:50)

(Click image for larger view.)

The lion lost a tooth but is still ferocious

This skid loader will spin as the float rolls down the street

The boys had wanted to throw candy from the skid-loader, but the sweets will now be handed out by parade walkers

For 7-year-old Kole Urig and his family, the sound of duct tape is also the sound of the jungle.

“It’s kind of like we’re building duct tape animals for the duct tape parade, and right now we’re doing the gazelle. [The] peacock is done, and the lion is done. We’re done with the flamingo but I think the beak fell off.”

Past prize-winners
The Urig family is inching toward tomorrow’s duct tape parade in Avon, their fourth time participating and hopefully their fourth best in show. Past floats have woven the family excavating business with Avon’s chosen theme -- be it the Woodstock Generation or this year’s safari motif.

Kole’s mother, Donna, scrounged materials for months to give some backbone to the life-size animals now in their living room.

“We did do a lot of recycling this year. I collected a whole bunch of newspapers and milk jugs. This here is actually an apple juice container, and the head of the lion is a beach ball.”
Kole adds, “Newspaper for the horns, mostly some pipes that my Dad got from his shop to make the legs, but inside there is also bubble wrap.”

Labor of love
Each family who signs up to make a float gets 60 rolls of duct tape from the organizers. Donna estimates that they bought about four times that much for what will eventually end up as lawn ornaments for Kole and his mischievous little brother, Carter. The boys are lifelong Avonites like their father, Keith, who says he participates because of civic pride, and also this year, because of Kole.

“He loves animals, so with the safari theme, we’re doing this one for him this year.”
Donna says, “This actually is really scaled down, because every time we start thinking about it, in like February, and we make this humongous grand blueprint, and then we start building it… it gets scaled down massively.”

Huge float
The float is longer than a limo, and it dwarfs the Urig’s garage. The wood frame will be covered in plastic grass before the animals are positioned. There’s the bright pink flamingo, a red-eyed tree frog, a parrot and lots more, all covered in more shades of duct tape than most people probably thought existed. And just to make sure the family business gets its due, the replica KMU Excavating skid-loader will rotate as it glides down the street.

“It took a little on the fabricating part to make it turn. [We had] to lean on some friends to help us pull through to get the right pieces and parts.”
Donna: “So we never really keep track of how many hours and I think it’s because we don’t really want to know.”

Origins of duck
The “Duck” Company started in Cleveland in 1950, and through a series of owners and corporate buyers, came to Avon about 20 years ago. When the city wanted to re-establish its own town festival, Duck stepped in and became both lead sponsor and organizer.

Along with the parade, the festival gives Avon natives like the Urigs a chance to show off their town with arts and crafts, featuring duct tape, and music and food, which presumably do not involve duct tape.