The City of Mission Viejo – in an effort to build community, instill hometown spirit and community pride – will revive a beloved tradition by bringing the community together to build the City’s official entry into the 2009 Rose Parade.
Building the float is the culmination of the City’s 20th anniversary of cityhood, which provided the ideal time to reinstate a community tradition. Mission Viejo has a proud Rose Parade heritage, with nine floats entered between 1977 and 1985 that garnered seven awards. Participation in the Rose Parade is an inter-generational, community collaboration meant to unify residents, homeowner associations, non-profit organizations, schools, sport groups, service clubs, faith organizations, businesses and others. The City’s float complements its goal to maximize community participation, encourage volunteerism and personally engage every single member of the community.
The theme of the 120th Rose Parade is “Hats Off To Entertainment.” Fiesta Parade Floats will build the float chassis and frame. Renowned designer Paul Rodriguez and floral director Jim Hynd will develop the float design, but bringing the vision alive will require hundreds of Mission Viejo volunteers, thousands of donated man-hours and support from the entire community. It takes more than 10,000 volunteer hours to assemble the intricate floral displays for each float, with the most delicate flowers placed in individual vials of water, then set in the float one at a time. The City will unveil its float design concept in September. The City’s Rose Parade Float Committee provided critical insight, visual reference and on-going feedback to the designer in order to develop a float design that represents life in Mission Viejo while ensuring the design relates to the official Tournament of Roses theme. The process then kicks off in October with 13 days of dry-flower preparation in Mission Viejo, with the decorating process in Irwindale following in November. Along with decorating the float, there are several ways for the community to get involved.
Civic organizations, schools and business partners can engage through merchandise sales and special events, which will generate enthusiasm and proceeds to support local causes. Promotional opportunities are available for business contributions to offset the cost of volunteer meals and travel. The City can assist local schools and organizations with fun and educational trips that introduce City heritage through the float design and construction process. Folks can also purchase a pin, program, hat or T-shirt and sport them throughout the holiday season.
Professionally built and “self-built” float design and construction costs typically start at $200,000. Budgets vary according to size, design sophistication and varieties of flora materials. The City budgeted $300,000 to construct a professionally built float that is comparable to the size and quality of the nine prior entries and is an appropriate reflection on the community. If the community decides the Rose Parade is a valuable tradition to continue in future years and prefers to pursue “self-built” designation, the City would endorse any volunteer willing to make the full-time commitment necessary to establish the Mission Viejo Rose Parade Association and generate associated resources.
Officials believe the Rose Parade float is a “win-win” for the entire community. It’s a great way for students to fulfill community-service requirements and for folks to get involved in the community, meet new friends and be a part of this historic tradition. It will also directly benefit others by creating more fund-raising opportunities for civic organizations and service clubs and promotional opportunities for local businesses. Like the Mission Viejo Nadadores, the worldwide recognition the City receives through participation in the Tournament of Roses Parade contributes to Mission Viejo’s reputation as a desirable place to live, work and operate a business.
Building community has been the cornerstone of Mission Viejo’s agenda for years. Over the past two decades, as the community has grown, its unique “hometown” feel still survives thanks to continuing traditions like the Rose Parade. The Mission Viejo Activities Committee was formed in 1967 to create and organize special events throughout the year that instill hometown spirit and community pride. The City has continued to embrace that goal of bringing the community together by hosting a number of special events including summer concerts, cultural festivals, holiday festivals and more. The Rose Parade float is meant to add another notch on the City’s community-building belt.
For more information about participating in this wonderful community event, call 949-470-3062 or visit the City’s Web site at www.cityofmissionviejo.org. Look for the float-decorating schedule in the fall issue of Leisure Time. Folks are encouraged to sign up for the City’s eNews or visit its new blog at http://missionviejolife.org/ for details about the September float design unveiling.
Fun facts: Did you know?
- The City submitted an application last year to participate in the Tournament of Roses and was invited to take part in the renowned parade, which only selects up to 50 floats from corporations and communities.
- The City’s official flower is the rose. Roses are a significant part of the Mission Viejo landscape and the local Rose Society maintains a rose garden at the Mission Viejo Library.
- A float can only travel about 3 miles per hour. It will take 9 hours to drive the float from the Irwindale build site to the Pasadena parade route/
- The average float will use more than 160,000 flowers, 110 gallons of glue and weighs more than 6,000 pounds once it is decorated.
- Floats are considered to be messages of goodwill. By long-standing custom, the Rose Parade, which was established in 1890, promotes floral creativity and design ingenuity in its floats, while downplaying overt commercialism.
