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by Jaret Bosarge
The Rose Parade was started in 1890, by the Valley Hunt Club. Back then there were only cars and carriages. Many things have changed in the last 125 years. Now the Rose Parade is full of award-winning fancy floats, big bands, super sponsors, and fabulous football. I was given credentials to cover the parade for Kid Scoop/Kid Scoop News and was sponsored by Woodmen of the World Insurance.
I interviewed one of the 931 Rose Bowl volunteers, Mr. Stanley Maack, who has been working with the parade since the early 1980s. He told me that Honda was the sponsor of the parade this year and that every inch of every float must be covered with organic material – something that was living and growing at one time. Mr. Maack also mentioned that the President of the Rose Bowl Parade selects the bands for the parade a year in advance. He looks for larger bands that can produce a bigger sound at the parade. To be considered, a band must submit an application with a tape of them performing. During the year, the president tours the county (and world) to see bands in person.
Another Rose Bowl volunteer, Ms. Rhonda Chavez gave me a tour of the parade barns. The floats are basically built by two companies. They have barns where they store the floats and decorate them. Since fresh flowers are on the floats, they cannot be decorated in advance. The flowers will not survive in sunny southern California. Three days before the parade, I went to the barns and saw hundreds of people working on the floats. They were cutting flowers, gluing seeds, and pasting rice. I enjoyed watching them work on all of the floats, especially the Gingerbread Train and Bedtime Buccaneer. While there, I sent my first tweet with pictures about the work being done on the floats. Vin Scully, the Grand Marshall of the parade, was my first follower and that was cool!
During the parade there was a fly over by six military jets, a skywriter, and the Goodyear Blimp.
The morning of the parade, we left our hotel at 5:30 A.M. heading to the parade. It was still dark when we arrived. The completed floats filled the roads of Pasadena. It was cold and I was wrapped in a blanket, as I reached our seats in the grandstand. There I met one of the float designers, Bob Lepping, who told me that there were only six floats made completely by volunteers. He and his wife, Lisa, were here from Atlanta to work on the float for the town of Downey, where they had built it. The float was driven during the night to arrive on time for the parade. Their float had won an award and they were very excited. Their float cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the bigger ones cost even more.
During the parade there was a fly over by six military jets, a skywriter, and the Goodyear Blimp. The Grand Marshall, the President of the Rose Bowl Parade, and the new inductees to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame rode in fancy old cars and fire trucks – decorated with beautiful flowers. There were bands from all over the world and my favorite was from New Orleans. The Rose Queen and her court rode a float filled with red roses. There was a float with a mega screen monitor. Another one had three small cars on it, which drove off a ramp, rode around in front of the float, and then drove back up the ramp. Two of the floats set off fireworks. The Harlem Globe Trotters bounced basketballs down the streets and acrobats with pogo sticks hopped and flipped to end the parade.
By February of this year, the theme for next year’s parade will be announced. The theme of this year’s Rose Bowl was “Dreams Come True”. Getting a media credential for the parade, meeting Rose Bowl volunteers, being taken on a VIP (Behind the Scenes) Tour, seeing Vin Scully, interviewing float designers and builders, and being given fantastic seats at the parade was all a “Dream Come True” for me. The parade theme was my theme also… because my dreams DID come true!
