Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Introducing "Rotary Community Heroes of Hope" - a podcast dedicated to showcasing the profound impact of Rotary in District 5330 and beyond. Join us as we explore the remarkable stories of rotary heroes and initiatives that are transforming communities and creating hope around the world.
Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Behind The Petals: How Rotary Builds A Winning Rose Parade Float
Seven miles, a sea of roses, and a television audience in the tens of millions—this is where Rotary turns service into spectacle. We sit down with Ray and Dan to reveal how a 45-foot float goes from sketch to spotlight, why every visible inch must be organic material, and how silver leaf, coffee, and hand-placed petals become a camera-ready message about “magic and teamwork.”
We walk through the real process: a subcommittee develops 25 to 30 concepts that align with Rotary’s priorities and the Tournament of Roses theme, then collaborates with Phoenix Decorating to refine the design for TV. Ray explains why awards matter for broadcast coverage and how a larger class float changes visibility. Dan breaks down the volunteer ecosystem—how hundreds of Rotarians, Interactors, and Rotaractors sign up at rotaryfloat.org to decorate, what happens inside the bustling warehouse, and why the hands-on experience is unforgettable. If you’ve ever wanted to ride or walk, we outline the limited, high-impact spots that put you right on the route, sharing rare time with Rotary International leadership.
We also open the ledger on costs and value. While many floats average around $300,000, Rotary’s streamlined budget lands near $185,000 this year, bringing outsized exposure across TV networks, streaming platforms, and social media. We cover sponsorships, the ambassador program, decorator apparel support, and surrounding events like the holiday party and luncheon that make the trip even more meaningful. With Magic Johnson as grand marshal and a theme built on unity, this year’s float aims to win hearts—and camera time.
Ready to help build the story the world sees on New Year’s morning? Sign up to decorate, sponsor, or explore rider and walker options at rotaryfloat.org, then share our new promo across your channels. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: are you joining us in Pasadena this year?
Every New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, there is a rose parade in our area. And I was so lucky to walk, slash, run, slash, dance for an entire seven miles. I was so worn out at the last rose parade. You're going to be at the one that's upcoming. And today we have Ray and Dan here to talk all about the new design and everything that's going on with the Rose Parade and Rotary's involvement in it. So welcome, Dan. Welcome, Ray. Ray, do you want to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about how you are involved in the Rose Parade?
SPEAKER_04:Sure. Thanks for thanks for having us both. Yeah, my name is Ray Bushnell, and my home club is Arcadia, California. And I've been involved with the Rose Parade for a little over 30 years. Wow. And great time. And that's been my uh kind of kind of my bailiwick for for the for all the time I've been with the committee.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, because it is a beautiful thing, those beautiful live flowers. It takes, I'll let you guys talk all about that. And and we'll we'll get into kind of how much it costs because it's quite quite an investment. But Dan, why don't you introduce yourself before we get into that?
SPEAKER_02:Sure, I'd be happy to. I'm uh past district governor for District 5320, which is down here in Southern California. Um, I'm also on the uh public image team for Rotary uh here in our zone. And uh I'm a newbie to it. I mean, I uh got involved uh about three years ago with the Rotary Rose Parade and have since uh got involved with the committee. Um and a little interesting story when I first got involved with it as a district governor, I wasn't I wasn't so sure. You know, I was like, you know, I I'm not that familiar with what the Rose Parade uh reaches. Um and I started getting involved with it, and I remember in my year putting it out to all my presidents, you know, do you guys want to fund this thing? Right and I actually voted on it, and a hundred percent of them said yes. So then I said, okay, and I gotta get more into this, right? I decided to walk her in it, and like you, Judy. Once I walked in it, uh well, I became the the dancing rotarian that year. But once I walked in it and I saw just the you know, the the massive amount of people on the route and the crowd yelling, Rotary, go rotary, all the way down you know, the boulevard, um, and the exposure it gets, it just convinced me that this is an incredible public image opportunity.
SPEAKER_00:100%, like tens of thousands of people on the street. But I I was talking with President, Rotary International president last year, Stephanie Urchik, and we're talking about how it's 28 million reach. So when we're talking about helping people know a little bit about rotary or having rotary in the front and center of everybody's mind, that's one really great way to do that.
SPEAKER_03:It's a unique opportunity worldwide. So that's exciting.
SPEAKER_00:So, Ray, tell us about the float and a little bit about how the design, uh, briefly how the design is is um decided upon and and what makes up the float. Because it's more than just walking that day of, people can be participative in actually creating this beautiful work of art.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's so true. The uh the float is designed by a subcommittee of the Rotary Rose Pate Float Committee, and we get together in January or February uh for the following year and start talking about a design that may be uh innovative, maybe it's uh whimsical. You know, we've done some some uh very stately floats, uh, and and so we'll we'll have a conversation about that, how that might dovetail in with what Rotary has going on. And then uh we'll meet with our builder. Our builder is uh Phoenix Decorating there in Irwindale, California, and they'll have some ideas, and we'll we'll submit some ideas, maybe 25, 30 ideas, and then we'll start talking about you know what the float might look like, what it what the images might be on TV on New Year's morning, and then craft a you know, as the tournament gets more involved, we'll craft a a message that will coincide with the with the Tournament of Roses theme for the year. And it's a it's a long-term process. It really does take uh you know nearly uh uh four or five months to create the the uh you know the design of the float and what it's gonna look like or what the messaging should be.
SPEAKER_00:And then the float itself is it's every bit of it has to be um flowers or some part of uh uh what am I trying to say, uh natural material. Right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, that's correct. The the there are exceptions, but those are handled by the tournament. And yes, everything needs to be covered with some organic material. And the the designers get very, very creative with that. Uh back, you know, a hundred years ago, it was pretty basic. Now they they put together stuff that's uh really, really innovative. For example, if they need a color, they will blend in a food processor, they'll blend flower petals to create that color. And then they hear those those that material to the float, and it it's just uh, you know, there's a there's a newer plant material called silver leaf. Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_00:And if you know it's a beautiful because it looks like metal, and and we had a lot of that on the last.
SPEAKER_04:If you're lucky enough that the sun hits that at just the right angle in comparison with the TV camera and stuff, you can't tell the difference between metal and and that silver leaf. It's it's a it's astonishing. And and those elements come into play. Uh, you know, if they need a, for example, a dark color, they'll use coffee, uh, you know, maybe to create dark coffee pepper for uh for blacks. Very, very, very uh creative work that they do on that.
SPEAKER_03:So, Ray, let me let me ask you something. You you mentioned about the coming up with 25 or 30 designs. Do you actually have somebody on the committee who sketches out your concepts to be able to present it to your builders as uh possibilities, or how does that how does that come about?
SPEAKER_04:What yeah, yeah, we do. Uh and then and then the designer will also come up with some stuff. And uh they've got uh what the designer will do is the designer will pre-register designs, uh, maybe for five, 10, 15 years out, even. And then the tournament approves those those designs and registers those designs for the for that particular builder. And that's an important concept because if we've got something we want to do in a few years, uh, you know, we want to make sure that we've got the ability to do that that somebody else hasn't hasn't picked up on it.
SPEAKER_00:Hasn't gotten that idea. What I love about so many things about the the rose float and the rose parade is is the opportunity that every single Rotarian and others, not you don't have to be a rotary rotarian to come and do this, can come out prior to New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and actually put flowers and petals and seeds and such on the float. So, Dan, can you tell us about is that that open already for people to register to do that and tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, which you you're absolutely right. I think that's one of the great things about the float is it's it takes hundreds of volunteers to make this float happen. And every year we put it out to uh all the rotary clubs, all the rotor actors who are college-based Rotarians and all the interacts, which are high school-based rotarians, to come up and participate in helping to decorate this float. And it it's it's we open that up. Uh, we just opened it up a few weeks ago. Uh so decorator signups are available now. The spots fill up really quick. Um I can imagine. It's fairly inexpensive. Uh, we encourage groups uh to come in. Uh, we have people come in from all over uh our districts, uh, you know, um, and you know, come in with teams. And it's it's just everyone that ever comes in and that I've talked to just you know, just they they just rave about the experience. Uh, because you're not just there decorating our float, you're also getting to see all these other floats coming together on that site at the same time, and to mingle with you know a lot of uh other volunteers that are doing these other floats as well. So it's it's it's it really is an incredible you know experience. I you know it's it's you know, decorating and and also being a part of the parade is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_03:So, where where then would somebody go who wants to sign up for um to participate and help to uh build a float? So you decorate.
SPEAKER_02:Let me uh get the proper URL here. Um but uh it's um it's the Rotary Rose Parade float committee, and uh it's if you go there, the URL is www.rotaryfloat uh.org.
SPEAKER_00:And then there is a signup uh so rotaryfloat.org, right? Rotaryfloat.org.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, then there's a sign-up tab to go to. Uh it's a fairly easy process. You just go in there and register your name and uh your organization. Um, and uh there's a small fee to participate.
SPEAKER_00:And it's right there in Pasadena, right?
SPEAKER_02:It's right there in Pasadena. And if you're coming from out of town, uh, you know, there's a lot of Rotarians around that uh might even be willing to help, you know, put you up. Uh so it's just letting people know you're coming, and you know, we can put the word out. We've done that in other past times with the you know, the people in the LA district and the Orange County district, and um, you know, may be able to, especially if you got youth coming in, you might be able to help out.
SPEAKER_00:I tell you, it is it really is a true amazing experience walking into that massive barn filled with all the different floats and just hundreds of thousands of different flowers of all kinds. And you might be sitting at a table, um, you know, taking leaves and putting in a little container that somebody else is going and putting onto the float or cutting flowers, or you know, I was uh came kind of at the end, so they put the rose, the actual roses at the end. And so I was able to actually put a rose, you know, onto the float. It's it's just fun. Even just going in there and seeing all the other beautiful designs. We were able to get the first look at the wicked float last year, which was really special. So there's usually some really special, you know, ours, of course, is very special, a very award-winning. We won an award last year and have won many awards in the past, but absolutely unique experience. Very um, like Dan was saying, low cost to go and volunteer and uh a very unique experience.
SPEAKER_03:So, Dan, I also correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that we changed the design um this year and actually went a little larger with our float. Is that uh correct? That's correct. That's correct.
SPEAKER_02:We decided to go big this year. Go big or go home. Uh, you know, and and our theme just plays in really well, unite for good. Um the rotary theme this year um that it's being used. And um, you know, we looked at the designs that were out there, we just thought, you know what, it's time to scale up this year and really make a statement. Um, so so I I don't know, is this the largest float we've ever done, Ray?
SPEAKER_04:Um I couldn't say for certain that it's that it's the largest that we've ever done. This is up up in class, you're absolutely correct. It under 35 feet and over 35 feet are the are the designations, and and this is a 45-foot float.
SPEAKER_01:So it it's a running competition, but we we think we have a design uh that you know we'll win.
SPEAKER_00:So then that gives opportunity, if I'm not mistaken, Ray. Does there more opportunities then to sit on the float? So there's more places that we can people could have the opportunity to take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, that's a great question. Uh the floats are set up and can be set up, and that's part of the design element is do you want to have a float that has X number of riders on it? Right. And that's that's a very unique opportunity. The um, you know, our float typically has about eight riders, and that's what we have this year. Okay. Uh there are there are designs. Uh, for example, there was one a couple of years ago that was a French cafe and it had multiple levels. 20 21 people, 21 people sat on that float. That's it. It wasn't our float, but but so there are there are floats that can hold, you know, if it's designed to to take advantage of people actually being there. Right. So that can be uh a very, very unique opportunity for somebody that would like to do that.
SPEAKER_00:And it are all of those eight positions already taken or are there open positions?
SPEAKER_04:No, there are there, I don't know what time we'll be at um on press with this with this, but there are at this point in time, there are limited spots available. And we also offer, if you wanted to, uh a walk alongside the float opportunity. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's what I did, and there's walking, I know there's walking spaces available. And why I mention it is I really don't think that our rotarians really know that if you really want to ride on this float, you can pay X number of dollars and you can say what that is. I don't know for sure. So you can you can express that. You can either pay those dollars or to walk to sit, which if you don't want to walk seven miles, that might be your preferred preferred. But if you're up to walking seven miles, you can walk. And I I tell you, it was fun. I mean, we danced the whole way. I think we followed in Dan's footsteps in that we danced the whole entire way, and it really depends on the float and the music if that's appropriate or not. But um Ray, why don't you tell us about those opportunities? And they're open to all Rotarians, is that correct? That's correct, yes.
SPEAKER_04:And and if you if you want a seat that uh the is probably a little bit less uh physically intrusive uh because it is a long walk and it is early in the morning, and it does you do need to be there before the parade starts. So the parade takes two hours in front of the camera, but it is an extended period of time, and it's it's only uh$10,000 for a for a rider spot to be to have a seat on that float. And if you wanted to walk alongside, that's uh$7,500.
SPEAKER_00:Which is a deal when you think about the fact that you get some incredible one-on-one time with the Rotary International President. I think I spent good between the lunch and the and the time that we were on the float or waiting for the float to go, or all of that time, a good, you know, four to six hours with Stephanie last year. It was delightful.
SPEAKER_03:And you're in a singular event that's happening worldwide. It's a once-in-a-lifetime screen. You're walking or riding, you're in a singular event that occurs nowhere else in the world for that two-hour period of time, as you were saying. So that's that's truly remarkable.
SPEAKER_02:You're you're not in a group like at a international convention or whatever, there's hundreds of people swarming, the RI president. You're sitting there with maybe 10, 12 people, right? 14 people's time with them, and and they it's it's incredibly engaging. Um, you know, and by the time you leave, you know their family members, you know them really well. They're on a first name basis.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, you get best friends.
SPEAKER_04:And just the parade itself is is you know, the it starts at the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Orange Grove in Pasadena, and and turning that corner, there's about a mile of downgrade and then a mile of upgrade, so it creates this bowl, and there's like 700,000 people that line the parade route.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I I grossly underestimated how many 700,000. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04:No, no, it it it is absolutely amazing, and and like we've said, once-in-a-lifetime experience, you know, you're you're not gonna get that.
SPEAKER_02:Um, yeah, you're on worldwide television.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, and that's that opportunity is open to anybody in the world, correct? So whether you don't have to live in Southern California or even the United States, oh, that is a good question. Do you have to would you have to be a Rotarian to be on that?
SPEAKER_04:You know, if a person wanted to do this and and there was an obligation to be a Rotarian, I I think that that there are hundreds of of clubs in the local area that would be honored to to make uh somebody an honorary rotarian. Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00:That's a good way to do it. That's I like that. But that's um it's it's it truly is that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and these days those experiences are far and few between. So uh what a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_02:In addition to that, before the parade, you know, gets going, the days before, there's a holiday party that Rotarians can join, and usually the RI presidents uh at that as well. Um, and then uh there's the luncheon that we talked about. Um, and so there's other events that we put together surrounding the parade itself that people can participate in.
SPEAKER_00:And the holiday party anybody can go to as well, right? They just have to buy a ticket. That's correct.
SPEAKER_03:That's correct. Well, that's truly unique and and it's remarkable. And I think that um I know that is this is really, to the best of my knowledge, really hosted by the Southern California district. Districts, but certainly I think that worldwide, uh, somebody uh rotarian in another continent could make this part of a sojourn to come here to Southern California, particularly if you're coming from colder climes. You could come to Southern California, get some sunshine, be in a singular event, and uh have an extraordinary experience.
SPEAKER_00:That's the exact conversation Rotary International President Stephanie and I had. It wouldn't it be amazing to have a representative from every continent in the world represented on our float. So I think that's something that that we need to aim for.
SPEAKER_02:And that's something something else we don't even talk about is the fact that if you're a football fan of the US, you go to Bowser event again that evening.
SPEAKER_00:There you go. There you go. You also have opportunities for clubs to get involved and support this in addition to coming in and decorating. Can one of you speak to the opportunities that clubs have all around the world again to be a part and and promote this particular um event?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, there the the opportunities are are boundless, really. Uh we've got sponsorships available. We we have a decorator t-shirt that that all decorators have to wear when they decorate. We've got sponsorship opportunities for that for for clubs or businesses that would like to take advantage of that. We've got uh sponsorship opportunities for the holiday party. And you know, Dan, jump in anytime if you want to.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and you could also the one that we really push out there is to be an ambassador, ambassador, right? Ambassador as an individual or a club. And if you become an ambassador for$500, yeah, you get some swag. Um, but you also get your name and a hat to be actually we pull one name every year for someone to be a walker. Oh, that's lovely.
SPEAKER_00:$7,500 value.
SPEAKER_02:You might become a walker, you know. Um, and it's just a cool event. So yeah, so we really like to you know see more and more clubs and people sign up to be uh ambassadors of the Rose Parade.
SPEAKER_03:And the swag is the swag is nice swag. I'm a more it really is, yeah. I like my swag. I like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and then jacket, and it's pretty cool stuff.
SPEAKER_04:There are other events that the tournament has also. They've got a thing, there's a lot of uh equestrians, equestrian units that are part of the parade. And they have a separate event before the before the parade for that. And then uh bands, college bands and high school bands. Um and they have an event called Bandfest where yeah, you could go out and watch, observe some of that stuff. Some of the equestrian events are you know, they're practicing, they're gonna be in the parade as well. It's just a it's sometimes you think it's a parade and you've got an idea. If you haven't been, you haven't been involved with with the Tournament of Roses parade. You might have an idea that this is your hometown parade, and they're great, they're wonderful, they're they're they're they're they're great events, but this isn't that. You know, this is a you know, 28 million people are gonna see this. It's televised, you know, on networks. There's there's gonna be, I think, five streaming platforms this year. This is a this is a big event.
SPEAKER_00:And then the and I'm gonna say this wrong, it's not Master of Ceremonies, but the the guy that rides in the isn't it isn't it Michael Jordan? Who is the person that's remember they selected? No, they selected someone just recently. Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson, I'm sorry. I knew it was a basketball player, and I'm like, I had the right letters but the wrong name.
SPEAKER_04:And you know what? The theme for the Tournament of Roses parade this year is the magic and teamwork.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yes, the magic and teamwork.
SPEAKER_00:I love it.
SPEAKER_03:So, Dan, let me ask you a question because you mentioned something for about the football fan. Is there a tie in between being able to ride a walk and getting into the game? I just want to clarify what I I thought I heard.
SPEAKER_02:Well, when you get unwalking, you pretty much have to get moving over to the game. I know that. Um, I don't know exactly the time difference, but it's a couple hours. You know, you've got yeah, you still have time to go to the game, though.
SPEAKER_03:But it's not you're you're riding your riding and walking is not a ticket also for the game. I just I I just wanted to clarify that for those people who make it. But that's all for those for those people who like the road. You could buy a ticket, of course.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, what we do as a team too, we help if you're walking and riding. If you want to go to the game, we'll help you get tickets to that. And the same thing that you grandstand tickets for family or friends. Um, we also work on that.
SPEAKER_03:It's really the potential is is significant. Yeah, it's yeah. The potential is significant for outside.
SPEAKER_00:And those dollars that are raised are necessary because how much does it cost for that float to be built? I love ready to answer well. Silence.
SPEAKER_04:No problem, no problem at all. Let me start off by by by reminding everybody that there's 28 million people are gonna see this. Right. And it's broadcast in hundreds of countries. And and what we're really looking for is what's the value, you know, what's the value proposition on this? Right. The average float in uh in the Tournament Roses Parade is about$300,000 to build the float. That's that's the average. There are much, much more expensive floats, and there are some that are less. Our float this year uh is about$185,000. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00:Very efficient with the dollars there.
SPEAKER_04:We we we do try to be, uh absolutely, yeah, because these are donated dollars, but the value that that represents.
SPEAKER_00:You couldn't, I buy television ads, you couldn't buy 28 million views on television around the world for anywhere near that. For 700,000 live. 700,000 live people. It's it it truly is a great advertising value for Rotary for everybody that's uh involved with it. So yeah, 100% value.
SPEAKER_03:Uh let me ask you a question. What is the and this could be this might be Judy's uh area of expertise, but you know, you you see sometimes where they they stop and they interview the walkers or or the floats, etc. What is the trick to getting um on channel five or channel four, you know, the NBC thing to to really have the stop at that opportune moment and you know rotary's there. What what is the trick that we need to do?
SPEAKER_02:Uh real trick is to be a winner. Yeah, get the award. That gives you the coverage. That is good coverage. Okay. If you're not one of those award-winning floats, um that it's sort of spotty how much coverage you might get.
SPEAKER_00:Although we have a secret weapon a little bit, in that one of the uh reporters up in that area is a Rotarian, and she does really work on trying not maybe on the day of, but come and and interview by the float while it's being built. Dan, you probably would not she can't promise it on sure of it.
SPEAKER_02:We talk about Yuvet. Yuvet, yes, yeah, yes, Yuvet's in this now for several years for us. Um, she also has her own ABC uh correspondent program that she puts on and and she does interviews. Um, she interviews all the walkers, writers, the RI president, um, and then she pushes it out there on social media. So um, even if we don't get the coverage on the national TV level, we get it in other ways.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and I will tell you, and the way people consume media these days, that social media outreach, we have the power of pushing it out further. You know, if we all share and and invite our friends and so on and so forth, we have more power than even the network does if we all did it in all of the all of our Rotarians in Southern California or around the world.
SPEAKER_03:So that's the key is really uh paying attention and sharing out that messaging because that's uh great content for people to understand how rotary is involved in our communities, which comes back to public relations that we have webinars that happen every month, and Dan's uh um public image uh monthly uh webinars that we have as well. So that this is great.
SPEAKER_02:In fact, we have a brand new promotional video we just put together uh and got our eyes approval on for the Rose Parade. Um, that's gonna go out to the press this week, and then uh it's gonna go out to social media within the week after. So uh you guys will be getting a copy of that, and we'll be able to share it out through our channels.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome, awesome. Any uh any final thoughts for uh the Rose Parade, for how we can support you uh from the various districts here, how clubs are our memberships.
SPEAKER_02:Um I think the biggest thing is you know to really um you know embrace the opportunity and to and to you know get it out there through the districts to any member you know that wants to participate in this. I think a lot of times it kind of stops at the maybe the DG line. You know, um it's it's really getting it out to all the members. This is just an incredible opportunity you know, to even just come be a decorator. Um it's a fun event. It's uh you know, an incredible opportunity to, you know, sort of uh get to meet other people from all over Rotary uh there as well. Um and just you know to make people more aware of it. I think it's been kind of it's sort of the you know the same thing Rotary all these years, best kept secret. Well, you know, it's I think we're learning we gotta, you know, make it not.
SPEAKER_03:And that and that website one more time for for people to go and and uh get information, sign up. Um it's rotary, it's just rotaryfloat.org. Rotaryfloat.org.
SPEAKER_00:That's easy. I love simple URLs. Rotaryfloat.org. Well, thank you, Ray. Thank you, Dan. We look forward to seeing you guys uh well uh uh more about the Rose Float. We look forward to seeing the float on New Year's Day, and um thank you for joining us today to talk a little bit about it.
SPEAKER_04:It's been a pleasure. Thank you for inviting us.
SPEAKER_03:All right, have a good day.