SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A team of carpentry students at Springfield’s Putnam Vocational Technical Academy are in the final stages of creating the city’s float for the Holyoke St. Patrick’s parade on March 19th.

Instructor David Stevens and his Putnam students are aware hundreds of thousands of eyes along the parade route and during the live 22News coverage will see what they’re creating to honor the city of Springfield a week from Sunday.

“The whole thing was six weeks of problem solving, how are we going to make this work? The other piece was easy in the process, the Springfield Colleens… will you rebuild it, we love collaborating with the city,” said Carpentry Instructor David Stevens.

The students have been part of the planning and creative process since the first day, their continued input and commitment is vital to the process of pulling this all together.

“This is one of our first, bigger projects in the city, it’s a little complicated. We all work together and we’re doing it pretty good,” said Nasir Patterson, an 11th grader.

Collaboration, the sharing of ideas and making them work, is at the core of this proud project that celebrates the city of Springfield, as these student turn a concept into the finest carpentry project they’ve yet undertaken.

“We all like to try to come up with an idea, make it round, it was difficult because all fit perfectly,” said Tamara Morales, an 11th grader.

Long after the parade, these students will have the pleasure of knowing that the parade float they created was seen by many thousands of people.

For those thousands unable to line the parade route on Sunday, March 19th, 22News will broadcast every moment from beginning to end on air and on WWLP.com.