The Road to the Rose Parade: Behind the Blooms

Join us for a special edition of On the Road with Paul Ward as we go behind the scenes near Pasadena, CA, to prepare for the iconic New Year’s Day Parade of Roses. Paul introduces Wade Nomura of the Carpinteria Rotary Club, who shares his insights about Rotary’s involvement in the parade, this year’s theme, “On the Road with Rotary,” and the fascinating float-building process. Discover how the floats are funded, meet the riders and walkers participating in the parade, and hear Wade’s inspiring story of his connection to Rotary and its mission. Learn about this year’s Rotary International President, Stephanie Hicks, from Pittsburgh, PA, and the special riders featured on the 2025 Rotary float. Get inspired by Rotary’s impactful work and find out how you can get involved with the parade and the organization.

 

Watch the full episode HERE

 

What you'll in this episode:

0:00 Introduction to this very special edition of On the Road with Paul Ward on location in Pasadena, CA preparing for the 2025 New Years Day Rose Parade

0:45 Some behind the scenes footage

4:21 Paul introduces our guest Wade Nomura of the Carpinteria Rotary Club

5:51 Wade tells us about his involvement in Rotary and what the Rotary is doing at the Rose Parade and reveals this year’s theme, “On the Road with Rotary.”

7:52 The float building process

9:48 How the float is paid for and the riders and walkers in the parade

11:30 The back story of Wade’s involvement with Rotary and what Rotary is

12:56 Where to learn more, and more ways to get involved with the parade and with Rotary

14:15 Special riders on the 2025 Rotary float and this year’s Rotary International President and rider, Stephanie Hicks, from Pittsburgh, PA.

16:09 A special Thank You to our sponsor: Opus Escrow

 

Related Episodes: Rotary’s Global Impact & Future Leadership with Margarida Eidson Desert Dreams: The Palms, Wonder Valley’s Artistic Oasis

Rotary International: https://www.rotary.org/

Rose Parade Rotary Float: www.rotaryfloat.org

Contact Paul Ward: 805-479-5004 [e-mail]

 

Have ideas for future episodes? We'd love to answer your questions - leave a comment! For any home buying or home selling needs in the Ventura County area of California, please reach out to [e-mail] or visit www.HomeAndRanchTeam.com

A special THANK YOU to our sponsor, OPUS Escrow! On the Road with Paul Ward would not be possible without the support of our sponsor OPUS Escrow. Supporting our sponsor ensures that On the Road provides viewers and listeners with the best possible episodes.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
.
Hey friends, it's Paul Ward here,
and welcome to this specialedition of On the Road.
We are down near Pasadena,
and we are working on theRose Parade floats for the

(00:20):
upcoming Rose Parade, whichwill be on January 1st.
And there are 17 floats being worked on.
And I am here as part of my localRotary Club of Camarillo and
brought a bunch of high schoolstudents to help with this effort.
And we also have our Rotary Internationalpresident visiting from Pittsburgh.
So, it's quite an honorand a privilege to be here,

(00:42):
and I'm excited to participate.
Volunteer today. The second optionis I want really quality work,
because if you do a goodjob, we win an award.
That's our float you're workingon. The theme this year is,
"Best Day Ever." Our theme is, On theRoad with Rotary." You're taking a,
these animals are taking aroad trip in that vehicle.

(01:04):
That's their best day ever. Thereare 17 floats being built in there.
You're one of them.
Who

(02:48):
wants to be on the scaffold? Up on thescaffold? You wanna on the scaffold?
Come over here, climb.

(04:21):
Hi

(05:05):
friends, it's Paul Ward here,and welcome to On the Road. Well,
it's a seasonal time of year,
very festive betweenChristmas and New Year's.
And one of the big events that'scoming up is the Rose Parade and
Rose Bowl.
And who better to talk to us aboutthe Rose Parade than Wade Nomura with

(05:25):
Carpinteria Rotary Club. Wade, welcome.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Absolutely. And Wade, you wear many hatswith the Rotary Club, is that correct?
That is correct. I do a numberof things, both club wise,
district wise andinternationally for Rotary.
Okay. And right now,
you're a liaison betweenRotary and the Rose

(05:49):
Parade, is that correct?
That that is correct.
My specific task and dutyare to represent their float
committee when we talk tonegotiations, contracts,
and getting VIPs coming outto the parade each year.
Gotcha. So,o
Rotary has a float in this year's parade?

(06:12):
That is correct. The actual float is
licensed by Rotary International, but itactually is done by a community called,
"The Rotary Rose Parade Float Committee."(It's) Been around for quite a few
years. I think it started back in thesixties, so we've had quite a few floats.
I think we're approaching 50 or60 floats total consecutively.

(06:33):
Wow. And what is, whatis this year's theme?
This year's theme is, "Onthe Road with Rotary.".
"On the Road with Rotary." That'sfunny. That's the name of my podcast.
The Irony.
Oh, perfect. Well, here you go. I haveto get you one of these pins here,
.
There we go. Wonderful. Thank you. And who
decides to theme?

(06:54):
The theme itself? Each floatgets its own choice. So,
each organization that has one of thefloats gets to pick and choose the name
and naming of that float.
The Rose Parade actually comeswith international theme.
So that theme is theirblanketing market theme,
and we have to fit our logoand theme into that specific
annual theme this year. You know,

(07:16):
"On the Road with Rotary," was oneof those ones that just fit. Yeah,
it's a pretty festive float. I thinkyou'll enjoy it when we get there on site.
Can you give any hintsas to what it looks like?
Is there a any animals or mechanics?
Well, the trick is,
if you can see the actual pinitself it's a picture of a farm,

(07:37):
basically a farm and farm truckwith animals from the farms
specifically. We have chickens, pigs,cows, things like that on the float,
along with a few Rotarians, includingthe president of Rotary International.
Wonderful. Now,
how many hours go into makinga float, would you say?

(08:00):
The actual float construction starts well,
before we actually will start our floatat the beginning of the year in January
or February when we come up with atheme, we start the selection process.
Once we have a theme or idea put in place,
the company Phoenix FloatBuilders actually comes up with different renditions
of floats they think would be a good one.

(08:20):
We have maybe 60-64 differentselections to pick from.
And then once you come up with what wethink fits best for what we wanna have
with our theme we then go with thatone. Once the actual rendition is made,
then it goes into actual construction.So, it starts with a metal chassis,
gets foamed out and gets colored in.
And then at the end of the yearin December, starting in December,

(08:44):
we actually start putting thefloat together. When I say that,
that's when the dry arrangementsand the flowers go on. So,
from the beginning of December,
all the way to we'll be doing our finaltouches probably in the next two days.
So, it's still in process. We can'tdo the live hours until five days out,
otherwise they will be damaged. Sothat's the time consumption there,

(09:06):
and it takes thousands of hours literallyto actually put the float together.
That's incredible.
And if you multiply it by all of theother floats that are in the parade,
it's just tens of thousands.
That is, that is true.It's pretty amazing.
Interesting. I didn't realize thatit was almost a year-long venture.
Definitely. So, right. It's incredible.We'll be coming out with next year's,

(09:28):
probably sometime February.
Wow. Well, for full disclosure,
I'm driving a group of studentsdown to do some work this afternoon.
Great. So, we'll see you there.
Absolutely. And where do the funds come to
pay for a float? I mean, it'snot a inexpensive venture.
No, no.

(09:48):
The float itself is probably valued atabout a quarter of a million dollars,
and we have to fundraise thatannually. Yeah, it's pretty big deal.
And that's why we staypretty busy year-round.
Most of the money comes fromthe actual participants. So,
as an example for thepublic to be aware of,
we charge ten thousand dollarsper rider on the float. Okay,
so a thousand dollars a ridergoes to the float. For riders,

(10:12):
we have out walkers,they're at $6,500 each,
and we could have as many as 12 ofthose. So eight riders, 12 walkers.
We have potentially 20 participantsactually with the float itself on Parade
Day.
Interesting. And they've all paid or...
They will pay. Some 'em aresponsoring districts too.

(10:33):
Districts will actually pay for aspot. So for example our district,
5240, actually pays for aspot each year, annually,
and this year Sherry Simwill be one of the walkers.
Okay. And how do you decide who'sa walker and who's a rider? I mean,
is it just first come, first serve?
Actually, it's the differencein price. $10,000 for a rider,

(10:54):
$6,500 for a walker.If you want to step up,
then we oftentimes are ableto accommodate everybody.
Two of the spots are actuallytaken by Rotary International,
so they help us out also.
Interesting. Interesting.
How long have you been workingon this particular project?
This project, I probably started inabout 2006, 2007. Been there ever since.

(11:18):
They put me on the committee for afew times. I've been chair twice now,
but I've served with the committeethat whole time. No breaks .
Wow. And how did youget involved in Rotary?
Rotary itself was an interestingone. We chartered the club.
I was one of the charter members ofthe Rotary Club of Carpinteria. And
in doing so, like most Rotarians, Ihad no idea what Rotary was all about.

(11:42):
I just signed on the dotted line, .
It wasn't until I started getting involvedwith water projects in Mexico that I
figured out the value of that one.
So doing water projects in Mexico tothen incorporating all of the other,
I would say, organizations. I'mdoing, for example, youth activities,
youth sports, all the way throughto landscaping water projects,

(12:02):
and now into building floats,which I'm a horticulture,
so that helps a little bit also.
I would imagine. And the rotarytheme is for those that don't know,
is "Service above self.".
That is correct.
And there's a four-way test as well.
That is true. .
You're helping humankind.That's what it's all about.

(12:23):
Pretty much. Rotary International is ahumanitarian organization of service,
so we have 1.4 million members globally.
And the mission overall is tomake the world a better place.
Back to the float.
I mean it is a big endeavor anda big financial undertaking,
but, you know, millions of folks are,

(12:45):
are watching the paradebefore the big game. And so,
it's an opportunity to getword out about what Rotary is,
even if people aren't quite sure.
Sure. No, that is very true.There are other ways too,
besides the walks and riders,you can contribute any amount.
What currently we have a, "Buy a

(13:06):
Rose," which is $25 for the rose.
And you actual get a rose with yourname on that, put on the float itself.
So that's another way todo it. We have ambassadors.
The ambassadors pay annually.It's $500 for the first time.
You get the pin, the hat,the jacket, all of the above,
the same as the committee members get.
Then it's I think it's$250 each year after that.

(13:28):
And that also helps quite a bit.
We are looking for people to try and Iwould say get the word out to different
districts, different clubs, things likethat. So, that does help quite a bit.
And by the way,
we'll have millions of peopleseeing this float on New Year's Day.
So that's another big, big deal.And that's why Rotary's involved.
I didn't know about the Rosecontribution and, you know,

(13:51):
getting a jacket. Is therea website that folks can go?
Yeah, yeah. It's an easy oneto remember. Rotaryfloat.org.
Rotaryfloat.org.
That's correct.
Wonderful.
Anything else about the folksthat are on (the float)?
Anybody special on this year's float orwalking that you might know that have

(14:12):
been big Rotary Rotarian contributors?

Actually the biggest one would be therepresentatives of Rotary International
themselves.
Each year we have the internationalpresident come out this year we have
Stephanie coming in as shecame in from Pittsburgh,
well via Korea, via Japan, via India.
And she leaves shortlyafter that to go to Africa.

(14:35):
Their schedules are ,unbelievable .
Wow.
But she's here. Each and every yearwe do have the president come out.
We've had the president'sriding ever since 2012.
So, from 2012 to current times, everypresident has ridden on that float.
And is this yours and forgive mefor not knowing, but is this year's,

(14:57):
Rotary InternationalPresident American, or?
Yeah, that is correct.Stephanie Hicks from Pittsburgh.
Okay.
Next year's president willbe coming from Brazil.
Oh, wow. Okay. So that's kind of a big,
a big honor and a tradition for theRotary International President to ride in
the parade.

(15:17):
It is, it is. They getinternational airtime, basically,
which is big. It's a huge deal for us.
Wonderful. Well, Wade,
I appreciate this and we're certainlygonna wanna spread the word about
Rotary International and the goodworks that the organization is doing,
and look forward to, of course,assisting when bringing the kids down.

(15:41):
And of course,f course watching theparade and seeing the Rotary International
float.
Look forward to seeing you there also.
Well, thank you Wade Nomura. We, weappreciate it. And we'll talk to you soon.
Sounds good. Thank you.