Action 2 Impact Podcast with Gwen Jones
Time to turn “actions into impact” With the Action 2 Impact Podcast. From right down the street to all around the world, get to know the amazing people and what they are doing to make this world a better place. Have them inspire you to get out there and have your “actions” make an “impact” everywhere you go!
Action 2 Impact Podcast with Gwen Jones
The Action 2 Impact Podcast Season 1 EP.6 Where heading back to Pasadena CA to chat with Ray Bushnell as they get ready for The Tournament of Roses Parade
Where heading back to Pasadena CA to chat with Ray Bushnell as they get ready for The Tournament of Roses Parade. Rotary has been a part of the New Year event since 1978, and you and your club can be a part of it too.
Join me as I talk to those "amazing people turning their Actions 2 Impact all over the world. #BE THE CHANGE
Hi there everyone, I'm Gwen Jones and welcome once again to the Action to Impact podcast, the weekly podcast where I introduce you to those fantastic people from all over the world that are turning their actions into impact. Well, even though we are in the middle of summer when this is being recorded, 2026 is already on the mind of Rotary Clubs in the greater Pasadena, California USA area. Why? Because Pasadena, besides being known as one of the most beautiful cities in the state of California, is also where for over a hundred years they've had a simple little parade called the Tournament of Roses Parade. Ever heard of it? If you're listening to me from way far away, maybe not. But if you're from the west coast of the United States, the Tournament of Roses parade is truly one of the most fantastic parades that start off any New Year's Day. Not the Rotary calendar you New Year's Day, but the one, you know, January 1st. And did you know that Rotary has a float in the parade? In fact, we've had a float in the parade for quite a few years. Now, if this topic sounds familiar, it's because we've had a chance to talk to some of these amazing Rotarians before, but we wanted to check back to see how they're doing. Why? Because you, that's right, you can be a part of this event and the Tournament of Roses Parade can be one of your club's major projects. Join me, won't you? The conversation starts right now.
UNKNOWN:Music
SPEAKER_02:Welcome back to the podcast. Well, since I've done this podcast for so many years, perhaps under a different name, because we're now the Action to Impact podcast, way back at one of my original seasons, I talked about the float that some Rotarians put together, and I'm being very specific about this, you guys, and you'll understand later, for a Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California. If this is not making sense yet, hang on. Let me cut to the chase. Ray Bushnell is here from the Rotary's entrance of a float in the Tournament of Roses parade that has a Rotary theme. I know we're being very politically correct, but there's a lot of funniness to this. Oh, hell. Ray, we're going to talk about the Rose Bowl parade and the Rotary float. There. I did it. I said it completely wrong because my political correctness was driving me nuts. Ray Bushnell is on the board of directors, in his case, for fundraising to tell us about Afloat, a fantastic parade, and how you can be a part of it in more ways than one. Ray, thank you for that wild intro and being on the show today.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you, Gwen, for having me. It's a pleasure and an honor.
SPEAKER_02:Now, I did hint that we've talked about the Rose Parade before, but never with an intro of all that stuff going in all directions. And I will throw myself under the bus by saying I am very, very, very specifically calling it the Rose Parade and not the Rose Bowl Parade. How come? Because you snagged me on that two or three times, you and the rest of your board.
SPEAKER_00:Sure, yeah, the Rose Bowl is where the game is played, and it's all under the umbrella of the Tournament of Roses, but the parade is separate from the Rose Bowl. So the
SPEAKER_02:Rose Bowl is a football game, the gridiron football game, not the soccer football game, where my Washington Huskies and UCLA, my West Coast college teams, have played for many, many years, and I always called it the Rose Bowl Parade and I saw it many a time as a youth. And is it just, are they trying desperately to try and not make it the Rose Bowl Parade anymore and just make it the Tournament of Roses Parade?
SPEAKER_00:I think it's a branding effort that it's actually two separate events. So the parade in the morning is the Rose Parade and then the bowl game is which is sometimes, you know, championship games, sometimes not. You know, it's always a very exciting game, but that is a separate, completely separate event.
SPEAKER_02:Which came first? Which came first, the parade or the football game? The parade.
SPEAKER_00:The parade, yeah, it's been around, I think it's 136 years. And that's maybe 97 or something for the game.
SPEAKER_02:So I would say if you, if you are in the United States and you're hearing my voice, there is the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade in New York city, which people argue is the quote unquote largest parade in the United States. And I would argue that the tournament of roses parade is the West coast equivalent that there is hundreds of thousands of people that line up. And the one thing that our parade on the West coast has over Macy's is is that it smells fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:It does, yeah. Flowers, every float is covered with 100% organic material, including flowers and barks and seeds. It's become much more sophisticated over the years. But certainly a better aroma than a helium-filled balloon.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And when I say that literally, so you guys need to hear that, that this is an entire parade of organic, And so when you hear of a float that's covered, that the beak of a bird is covered in mustard seeds, just kind of put that one together, you guys, of how many thousands of mustard seeds. And these floats don't last very long, I do remember, as well.
SPEAKER_00:No, they don't. You're right, Gwen. A few days, the tournament has an event. that that starts around noon on the day of the parade and goes until five o'clock the next day and by that time if the sun's been out like it usually is in in southern california yeah the the floats are not you know they're not as pretty as they were starting at 8 a.m on on parade day that's for sure
SPEAKER_02:and parade day is obviously new year's day and i i I can remember as a youth sleeping literally on Colorado Boulevard with the rest of my friends in sleeping bags. And it is quite an amazing thing. But I don't know if there are Rotarians around the world that realize that a float representing rotary and all that rotary does is has been in existence in idea since 1978 and in existence since 1980. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's correct. Jack Gilbert from the Wilshire Rotary Club dreamed this up and thought, wow, Rotary is going to be 75 years old in 1980. And what better way to tell the world about what Rotary has done and what we hope to do, our aspirations and our dreams. And so he got together with a few people and talked to some Rotary International people about it. And the committee was formed in 1978 to put a parade, you know, float in the parade for 1980, which was when Rotary celebrated their 75th year.
SPEAKER_02:So how many, it sounds like this just has to be just like a couple people. How many people are involved in getting a rotary float, which I know we're a rotary branded float on that beautiful Colorado Boulevard. So like, how many, what does your team do or how many people are on your team? I should ask. There's a, there's a
SPEAKER_00:total of about 90 people on the team. And that sounds like a lot. We've got committees in Southern California where the work gets done, you know, where the, where the, building gets done, the designing and decorating. But we've also got a quite large number of people that are national advisors. We've got people from Pennsylvania. We've got people from Maryland, Chicago. So it's out there. We've got a new person that just started a year ago from Tennessee. So it's a far-flung enterprise. And putting together a float is a year-round project. We will start in January on the following year's float.
SPEAKER_02:And I know you guys have the design. If you guys have checked out the podcast site and other places, your design is already set. How do you get these designs? Do you just put a call out and say, hey, who wants to design a float?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we start with stuff like that, ideas and concepts. And then... We'll go to the builder and they've got a design team and they will sometimes take the concept. Sometimes we take a full blown float in and say, this is what we'd like. The most important thing about the float is that it needs to be absolutely gorgeous, well decorated, and it needs to appeal to a broad audience. This is a, you know, this is a parade that's watched by, you know, 28 million people. So it's not just a Rotary message. You know, the Rotary brand is obviously there. And we do a lot of work to make sure that Rotary clubs, zones, districts, and training assemblies and stuff like that understand the value that we offer for, you know, from a PR standpoint. But it's, you know, people will say, oh, this should be a... You know, like a rotary project, maybe a part cleanup, maybe a... Right,
SPEAKER_02:because this isn't cheap, Ray, I assume.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's... Well, it's not cheap, but it's a good value. Okay. It's a great value. And that's the important... That's an important part about it. Often... prospective donors will say, you know, gee whiz, I would really, you know, I'd like to give you a small contribution, but I'd rather have that go to a kid that needs a backpack or maybe some school supplies, sneakers, whatever it may be. And that's certainly a good point. But Rotary as an organization needs to be out there in the public eye because if we don't talk about expanding our reach and the good work that we do. We don't do it for the publicity, but the publicity will help us to boost the organization in the standing of people so that if they hear about Rotary during their parade, maybe this isn't the first time they've heard about it. Oh, I've seen the signs. Or I see they do projects. I know that they're involved with education. In the United States, polio has been gone for so long, but Rotary is gigantic in the eradication of polio. But that's more of an international thing. The great work that Rotary does is often... selfless act, service above self. So we don't really brag about what we do or how we do it. And this is an opportunity to change that story a little bit, kind of expand outside of that comfort zone and let people know that Rotary is doing wonderful things. They're community-based and you can be as involved as you want.
SPEAKER_02:So we don't brag enough. I mean, that's a That's really important. I happen to agree with you. When I do a lot of speaking gigs, I'll ask people, when was the last time that you talked to somebody about Rotary? Raise your hand if you talked to somebody about Rotary over the last five days. And it's amazing how many hands I don't see. And so is this, are you trying to get on literally a bandwagon, Ray, of... We need Rose parades. We need 4th of July parades. We need to walk around and tell people how awesome we are. And this is just it on steroids. And we want to do more of this. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I talk often about if, if the tournament roses parade was the only thing rotary did to promote itself, it wouldn't be worth doing. It's got to be in conjunction with everything else from, from wearing your, your rotary pin to, And like you said, talking about rotary, it's an easy conversation to have once you're comfortable with it. My rotary club did a reading project for the local elementary schools. That's an easy conversation to have. That's what I did. I did something like that. And it's not a conversation often that people are very comfortable in starting. So, for example, if a rotary club were to come out and help decorate the float, or send a contribution, you know, to help pay for the, you know, the hardware that we need. That's a conversation starter. You know, what my Rotary Club's doing? One of the things we're doing is we're trying to expand our reach. We're trying to reach out to more people. We're trying to let people know what great work Rotary does. And that's an easy conversation. Oh, okay, you know, tell me more. Tell me more. That's what you want to hear. And... If you look at some of the other organizations that are involved in the Rose Parade, like Lions and Kiwanis and City of Hope, Odd Fellows and Rebecca's, there's another organization. The actual organization is called One Legacy, but their program is Donate Life. And they've had a float for years. And they're all examples of ways to reach out to expand the knowledge that people may have about whatever your cause is. And our cause is service and taking care of the communities that we're in. And this is a way to help with that. Like I said, it's not the only way. Clubs, zones, districts, they've got to do other stuff, whatever it may be, whatever they're comfortable.
SPEAKER_02:So let's get back to the float itself, because I couldn't agree with you more. I think things like this that that I think Rotary has a nasty habit of not bragging about themselves. I am biased. Like I said, I have loved this parade for years. It was an institution in my family to watch it. But let's get back to the float itself. Because you said that you start this design process in January. So we are recording this in mid-July. So you are in it. one would think, and the new design is definitely out. Did you honestly say that you just kind of go into these builders with this dream? And so are these builders then looking at you saying, because two things have to happen. Your design has to be organic and doesn't it have to drive down a road for what, three miles? So it has to move and be organic. So as some of your projects change, gone to some of these builders and they have said, no.
SPEAKER_00:Well, honestly, yes. That's true. They have. If we try to slant the message and make it too fine-tuned, then they'll say, this isn't going to work. The best hope we have is that this thing is absolutely gorgeous, stunningly gorgeous, and it can be gorgeous in a whimsical way, Most of our floats over the last 46 years have been somewhat whimsical. Okay. Teddy bears, and we had a bunny one year, planting a garden. And that works really well. People love it. It's beautiful to look at. There's a lot of detail, so people on the parade route are excited to see this. It plays real well on TV. The commentators talk about what goes into making the float. And If it's too complicated or you're trying to get a message across, it confuses people and confused people are not what we want. You know, we want people who love this. They look at it, they go, wow, that that's, that's unbelievable. Look at this part, look at that part. You know, if we have some animation, if it's appropriate, you know, that always draws a lot of attention. Our, our riders and walkers, you know, we'll be waving and happy new year from rotary and the crowd responds to that stuff. And it's, The last thing in the world you want is somebody to say, look, you know, my brain is scrambled on this. It's New Year's morning, you know, in Pasadena and look away, you know, because we want that, you know, brought to you by rotary.
SPEAKER_02:You want those nearly 30 million people looking at that float, simple message fast, because for all those people on TV, they might see it for five, six minutes compared to the thousands that are going to see it the whole parade route. But fast, simple, and not break down.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you don't want to break down.
SPEAKER_02:You don't want to break down. I keep saying this word, organic materials. How much of this float, besides its structure, I mean, come on, we have to be able, they know that wood has to make the structure, which arguably is organic. But how much of the float has to actually be organic? flowers, grasses, seeds, et cetera?
SPEAKER_00:The entire float needs to be covered with organic plant material. So everything. That can include seeds, everything. There's a, you know, you mentioned you don't want to break down. There's a trailer hitch. In case of a breakdown, there is a trailer hitch. And even the trailer hitch has to be covered with something organic, whether it's coffee or pepper, you know, something. So the entire visible... Now, there are some exceptions. Okay. People always call me on this. They say, well, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, the engine is not going to... The carburetor in the engine is not organic.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's just carbon. Just everything that you can see. There are exceptions. They put an antique truck on a farmer's... float one year. And they didn't have to cover that. They had a big electronic screen, like a 200-foot electronic screen. And it probably wasn't 200 feet, but... It
SPEAKER_02:was really super big.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. There are exceptions to the everything has to be covered with organic materials. But that's all handled by the tournament and the builders. And everything underneath is, you know, it's a truck chassis. So it's... And these... Trucks, they don't get a lot of miles put on them, so they last for years and years. So it's like depending on the size of the float, the size of a truck. Some of these are pretty big truck chassis, and they drive. One really interesting point is that generally speaking, the person that's actually driving, that's on the gear shift and the steering wheel, generally can't see out. So there's two things that happen. Number one, they cut a hole in the floor so that the person can look down at the ground. And then there's a rose colored line that's painted all along the five and a half mile parade route. And so they know left or right, you know, I've got to keep that line. You've got
SPEAKER_02:to follow that
SPEAKER_00:line
SPEAKER_02:that's
SPEAKER_00:in the bottom of your float. Sure. And then there's a spotter. That sits up in the front, not outside, but in the front looks through a screen and kind of tells him, OK, slow down. You know, you're getting too close. Slow down or speed up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because that was my next question. What if what if a kid runs across the thing or there's or the whole parade is held up because of something? That's what the spotter does. That's what the spotter does. Yeah. Safety
SPEAKER_00:is so important. The tournament was a wonderful job. When we're building this thing, we have to go through three different safety tests. And one of them is, can we evacuate all the participants off the float in 45 seconds or less? Wow. Safety is very, very important.
SPEAKER_02:So there's twice now you've talked about, and we're going to go back to how everyday Rotarians can be a part of actually either making, contributing to, or riding on this float. You did mention riders on the float. And I know for the past quite a few years, it has been the Rotary International President. So I know you are not necessarily affiliated with Rotary, but Rotary actually must really love this because You have the Rotary, this is one of the trademarks of the Rotary year for the Rotary president is to be on this float. And how many years has our president been on the float?
SPEAKER_00:I'm not sure, but it's become a tradition. And once it started, we always had some riders and or walkers involved with the float. But once the president started riding, it became a tradition and that's not likely to get broken.
SPEAKER_02:And it's fun. I mean, I think it's great that especially the year friend of the show, Jennifer Jones, was there because that also added the fact that she was our first female Rotary International president. And of course, Stephanie, your chick followed in her places this this past year. But we have a new president from Italy, Francisco, and he hadn't heard of the parade. And I'm here to tell you. He's excited to ride on his float. I'm letting
SPEAKER_01:you know.
SPEAKER_00:I think they have a really good time. Whatever concepts that people have about a parade, we've all seen small town USA parades. This is different. This is radically different. This is a big multinational event. People come from all over the world to participate, to help. You know, put the floats in. Organizations come from everywhere. So it's a much bigger deal, I think, once an RI president gets here and sees what goes into this. It's an eye-opener. It really is.
SPEAKER_02:And we have very lovely RI presidents that I am sure, when they see this on their calendar, are like, I'm going to be in a parade? Okay. And I'm sure it is rather a gobsmacked idea. But you also said there's some other people that are waving on the float as well as walkers. Who are those people? Let's say I want to be a rider on a Rose Bowl float. Is that a possibility for a quote unquote everyday Rotarian? How do you do that?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. So we'll start at the top because that's the rider spot. It's a$10,000 contribution to the float committee. to ride, and that secures you a spot. We have anywhere from maybe six to eight available spots. Of course, the president's taken up by a spot.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you can't kick he or she off of that one. Okay. All right. Whatever.
SPEAKER_00:I'm going to get to ambassadorships in a little while. Okay. We offer that as a sponsorship level, and one ambassador from all the ambassadors gets... chosen out of a bucket to actually ride on the float.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so you have one going to the international president. Two to the president. Two to the president. So president plus one, okay, gets to ride on the float. And then you have an ambassador of picking out of a bucket. So that's a prized spot, a spot that's given away. So that's three spots. You said there's like eight or nine spots. Who else gets the other five or so?
SPEAKER_00:So we'll make an attempt to sell those. Oh, OK. Ten thousand dollars. We've had people that just love to do this. And one person's written, I think, four times. I think she brought her husband one time and I think she paid for a friend one time. So she just loves it. She just thinks this is the greatest thing ever. And some people don't really know about that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I was going to say, I don't think a lot of people know about it.
UNKNOWN:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:It's for select people, people that really have it as an item that they want to do. And it's always a great experience. People always come back with, you know, this is something I had no real idea what to expect. When you turn the corner, the parade kicks off at the corner of Orange Grove and Colorado Boulevard. Yeah. And that's the traditional start is that right-hand turn onto the parade route. It's about a mile downhill. Okay. And then a little bit of flat and then a mile uphill. And that whole entire bowl is filled with people. There's 700,000 people on the parade route every year. And it's just, you know, it's an, oh, wow moment. You know, it's early, generally early in the morning. You know, it's fresh. It's a new year. It's just so exciting to be out there as a, you know, as a participant. And people just don't know. You know, the presidents come back and say, wow, you know, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to
SPEAKER_02:see. It's funny because there's multi-layers to this interview. Of course, we're talking right now about people riding the float, but if all my listeners remember, Ray just said a little while ago that the man or woman who is driving this float is following a little rose-colored line. What you've just told us is this spotter and this blind driver literally take a right go downhill to a flat part and then uphill. Is that right? That's right. 700,000 people watching them and we hope the float makes it. I'm sorry. It's my humor. I assume we have never broken down, right? Just for the record.
SPEAKER_00:I believe that we have broken down, but we've never broken down early. Okay. Our breakdown occurred after the TV cameras.
SPEAKER_01:The
SPEAKER_00:worst thing you can have is to be towed into view of the TV. Of the
SPEAKER_02:TV cameras. We're Rotarians, so we adapt. We could just get on the back and push it the rest of the way. We would have done it. That could happen. We're over a million strong. So those are the people that are riding, so you can pay for those spots. But friend of the show and friend of mine, Tom Gump, I've seen a couple times walking beside the float. You can also walk as well as ride? That's right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this year we have 16 Walker spots. Okay. And five of those are reserved for Southern California and Nevada districts that have been staunch supporters.
SPEAKER_01:Oh,
SPEAKER_00:wow. Okay. Yeah, they contribute a lot of money. The other spots will be filled with people who contribute$7,500. And that's kind of a buy it now.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So humor me. So it's$5,000 to ride on the boat, float, excuse me. It's$5,000 to ride on the float.$10,000. Oh, thank you. Okay. I was like, wait a minute, I can sit down? And I was like, wait a minute, I can sit down for less? But you do get the exercise of walking. So, and may I add, if you do walk, you get In my opinion, one of the coolest rotary swags that we have, and that is the Rotary Rose Parade hat and jacket and other stuff that you guys sell that goes with the whole thing. And they're bright red, which I know is not a traditional rotary color, but go check them out because that's something you can get as well. Is that true? That's
SPEAKER_00:right. Yeah, we've got a lot of stuff available for sale on the website. Patches and pins, the jackets available, some shirts, hats. There's a lot of
SPEAKER_02:stuff. So you can ride it for free if you're Rotary International president. You can pay$10,000 and ride on the float. You can pay$7,500 and walk. So that's already a lot of money. How much does a float like this cost?
SPEAKER_00:The float itself for this year is about$180,000. And that's to build it, test it, you know, make sure, you know, that's our price to the contractor to actually build that, drive it, you know, make sure it's safe. So the average float in the Rose Parade is about$300,000 in cost.
SPEAKER_02:So why is ours so cheap? Well... It's supposed to say that we're a nonprofit service organization and we want to, you know,
SPEAKER_00:no, that, that, that is true. But, but this is when you look at the value and we talked about that just briefly earlier, when you look at the value, there's a, there's a tournament puts out a earned media equivalent. Right. Number. And that's, that's about, I think it's$265 million. Right. which means that somebody would need to pay$265 million to get the exposure that the Rose Parade gets. Wow. And that's a large number. So you divide that up by 40 floats and some equestrian units and bands and stuff. And that's where the value comes in because nobody's spending that kind of money. No. We're raising the money to do this project. you know, through these Walker Riders, some corporate sponsors, stuff like that, club contributions. We'll send out a letter to clubs asking them for a small contribution. And that works out really well. But add up all of what is spent. It's nowhere near the value. And that's really what makes it a really good value. It's a great value proposition. We're hoping to get up to a few minutes in front of the TV cameras and a little bit of talk about what Rotary does. The commentators will get scripts, and some of it includes what the flowers are and stuff like that. Certain networks focus more on that. Other networks focus more on the service organization itself. And then you've mentioned breakdowns a few times. We don't ever want to break down. But one year, somebody, a couple of floats ahead of us, broke down. So we were stopped there for like, I think something like 10 or 12 minutes. And I'm sure they must have been scrambling. Somebody Google what does Rotary do? Because they really covered it in depth. So... So breakdowns can be positive. Yeah, for
SPEAKER_02:some people. But if somebody's going to break down, have them be with us on the television screen.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. Yeah, we want them close so that we can get a little extra time.
SPEAKER_02:So I know that this podcast for some folks has turned into Marketing 101, but I do share the last 30 plus years of my life with a publicist. And so marketing and publicity is something that this house understands. But I'm sure, just to play the devil's advocate, there's some people that are going$100,000. That's a lot of books. You mentioned that you did a project about books. That's a lot of polio plus money. That's a lot of Paul Harris money. That's a lot of... How do you get the average person to understand the value of of marketing the value of something like this? How do you get them to understand that? Because I'm sure there's people listening to this going, Gwen, sounds like a lot of fun. I love a good parade, but come on. That's a lot of money for this.
SPEAKER_00:How do you help them understand? And sometimes people are not going to understand if... Service projects are in your heart and you would do anything to create a service project. And maybe you pay for it out of your own pocket. You're probably not going to understand the value of marketing. Okay. Every Rotary club and every Rotary district will lose every member it ever had. if you're around for a hundred years, your club is around, my club's coming up on a hundred years. We don't have any founding members. There's nobody, no, no original member.
SPEAKER_02:If there was, that's a podcast.
SPEAKER_00:So, so organizations, all organizations, even commercial entities, they've got to replace, you know, customers that move on or, or right. Tarians that move on donors that move on. And without, properly run branding and marketing, and if you will, advertising, there's no way to get the word out about enough, effectively enough, to have new members say, hey, that sounds like something I'd like to be interested in. And that's the first step. And for us, we believe, and a lot of nonprofits believe, if you remember the little list that i gave earlier there's a lot of non-profits that are in the parade you know they wouldn't be doing it all those people wouldn't be doing it just because they're following the leader like rotary and and saying oh rotary does it we we should do it you know it's uh it's working and it's it's a great way to introduce like people that come out and and decorate and maybe interact clubs from the local area. People come from far away. We've had foreign exchange students and ambassadorial scholars. So it's a wide-reaching event is the Rose Parade. And being involved in that is a way of advertising or talking about what it is that Rotary does and how we do it. And this particular thing is just fun. People love it. They come out. You can see when the decorators get there that maybe there's some Interact kids, 30 Interact kids from a school. And they're like, oh, I got to put my phone away? Oh, man, what are you talking about? And an hour into this thing. They've made new friends. They're talking about stuff. They're maybe laying on their back, gluing seeds to the bottom of some animal. And it's just fun to see that. You know, there's kids working together. They're always adult supervisors, and they're taking their time. And that's what really, ultimately, what Rotary is all about. It's creating that sense of community. And the sense of community around our flow is just enormous. And it's a good value. The value proposition is something that, you know, somebody that says, I'd rather give a pair of sneakers to a kid that needs them than$100 to the float committee. They don't understand the value that comes out of this. And you need to do both. You know, we can't just build a float and say, hey, we're great.
SPEAKER_02:You still need$100 for the
SPEAKER_00:pair of shoes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So... So we've kind of covered a lot of stuff, everything from following rose-colored lines to we don't break down to this whole thing started off in January to$10,000 level,$7,500 level to what you just dabbled in this last time is that at the end of this whole thing, this float is decorated by Rotarians just like you and me. And if... Somebody wants to decorate a float in the Rose Bowl Parade. Is that something, Ray, that you'd be happy to have Rotarians come and join you and help? Oh,
SPEAKER_00:we'd be thrilled. We'd be thrilled. Okay. Starting in December, on Saturdays in December up until Christmas, there's dry decorating that goes on. We've got 16 hours a day. Oh, my gosh. 40-person shifts to fill. Wow. So dry things.
SPEAKER_02:So you're talking about like seeds or grasses or things that can last 30 days and still look good. Is that
SPEAKER_00:right? Exactly. One of the things, the creativity that goes into this, you know, anybody that comes out to decorate is going to see this. If they need a particular color and it's not available on flour, they'll cut petals off of flours and put them in a food processor and blend that thing up to make a specific color. And it's just amazing the creativity that goes into how to cover everything with organic material and get the colors that you want.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Okay. So starting in December, any Rotarian from around the world who is listening to my voice or interactor or Rotaractor who is listening to my voice. And by the way, they can go to the website, I assume, to volunteer.
SPEAKER_00:Is that correct? Okay. Decorator signups will start the 1st. The first Saturday in September. In September.
SPEAKER_02:So in September, you're going to start decorating this thing. Sign up. Sign up. Excuse me. Sign ups are in September. In December, you actually start decorating this thing with Rotarians from all over the world and right down the street. And then Christmas Day. And then that week between Christmas and New Year's. Is that... just insanity? And how many volunteers do you have working in that place? Because that would be crunch time, is it not?
SPEAKER_00:It is. It absolutely is. So Christmas, nothing. Everybody gets the day off. Everybody gets the day off. Okay. The 26th, different story. So the volunteers will come in, and that's when a crew chief from Phoenix Decorating, that's our builder, crew chief is responsible for setting up teams, what they're going to do, how they're going to do it, inspecting the work. And that's really when this stuff starts. And there's two shifts. There's a morning shift, 8 o'clock start, and an afternoon shift, a 4 o'clock start. So, yeah, there's plenty of opportunity. And then there's different– Different jobs for different skill levels. Some of this stuff, you know, because the floats are so high. They're 20 feet high. Some of the stuff is done on scaffolding. So you've got to be comfortable with heights. Okay. And then sometimes people are better at the– Maybe one year, I remember we had a crocodile, and the crocodile needed to look realistic, so they cut Brussels sprouts in half and glued Brussels sprouts on that. I'm telling you, the creativity, it's astonishing. It's just fun to go out there and watch. What are they going to do today?
SPEAKER_02:Benji's the same way again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:it's
SPEAKER_00:fun.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, my God. So anybody can be a part of it. Volunteering sign-up starts in September. You can write on it. You can walk. It is a way to market. It is a way to tell the world about us. Oh, I know I had one question. Is it always based on the theme of the year? I know we don't technically have themes, but you know what I'm saying? Like right now we are, as we're recording this, it's united for good. Do we, does the, does the float always echo that? Or are you guys, are you guys your own independent thing? Yeah. We do
SPEAKER_00:try to tie it to that to get that extra push. And that's kind of more the internal message. So anytime you've got a branding and marketing thing, you've got the internal message talking to the company, the people that work there, their customers. And then you've got the external message, which is talking to everybody. Right. So we want it to be universal. And Unite for Good is so powerful. That's just such a great theme. And that's actually the name of our float this year. The theme of the name is Unite for Good. We also try and have the walkers and riders have been involved with some sort of a rotary area of focus. So when we put this up on Facebook and on our website, you know, we can talk about you know, this was, this was a, you know, if the float lends itself, we had a water well one year. So, so water was obvious that, you know, so, so we had people that had done water projects around the world and they kind of focused on that in their social media interviews and, and interviews for our website.
SPEAKER_02:So on a, personal level. And I thank you so much for, for Ray, for, for being on the show, for reminding us again, I know this kind of, this particular interview went down more of a, of a marketing turn, but I, I actually agree with you. I think we don't, we don't dress up and have fun and go tell people about Rotary. And I think this Rose Bowl parade is a, excuse me, Rose parade. Oh, and I was being so good up to that point. that this Rose Parade is one of those marvelous things. But what do you get out of it, personally? I mean, you're obviously, it's right down the street from you. You live in this area. This is part of your tradition of Rotary. What do you personally get out of doing the Rose Parade?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's a great question, Wynne. I like it because there's so many facets to it and it's not something that you get every day. You know, I get it every day because this is the main thing that I work on and I work on it all year. But I enjoy the various aspects of this, like the design, working with the design committee, working with the builder. And I think it's a remarkable way to tell the world that in a very soft way that we're here and we're going to be here for a long time. And if you've got a heart for service, take a look. And that means a lot to me personally, is to be able to bring a message like that to people. New Year's Day is very special. It's a new beginning. And it's, you know, there's... generally a great deal of optimism and hope. And I love that aspect of it. And I think that when you see that pride of ownership, Rotary pride of ownership in that float that you've had something to do with all year, it's just remarkable to me. If I could, I'd like to touch on another point that's really important to me. And that is the Rotary International hosts a summit surrounding the parade with Lyons, Optimus, and Kiwanis, and obviously, and the presidents from those organizations get together, and they get a breakfast with their committees, and then they go away, and they talk about private things, whatever, you know, I can only imagine. I'm, you know, way above, but I can tell you that for years, for for over 46 years. This summit's been taking place, and the power that goes into these organizations, it's not just Rotary, but Lions, Optimists, and Kiwanis, billions of dollars in foundation assets and millions of people that have a heart for service that want to go out to the world and do stuff. And what the presidents would often talk about in years past was, yeah, you know, you're right. This is too big to let go. And obviously the program needs to be, and you get four different answers. You know, Rotary would say, well, we're this close to polio. You know, we got to finish that. Right. Everybody had their own little pet project, if you will, that was unique to themselves, right? And what happened a few years ago was Mark Maloney, one of the past Rotaries. Yeah, past president. It's been a friend of the show. Yes. Said, I'm not going to do it that way. What I want to do is I want everybody right now to get your calendar out and let's find a date that we can meet. We're going to host this meeting in Evanston. And I want you to bring not only yourselves, but I want you to bring friends. your president-elect or whatever you call them, and I want you to bring your top program person, whoever's hands-on steering that, you know, the program aspect of your organizations. And they met in Evanston, and that was just before COVID hit. And they had a whole infrastructure in place, agreements and a whole infrastructure in place about how to cooperate with each other. And it made a gigantic difference to the– you know, lots and lots of people. And again, this wasn't something that got national or international attention. It was done because it was the right thing to do. And since then, they've organized, you know, a day of service, a week of service. They've really done an excellent job of how to bring these four organizations together to collaborate for the good of society. And that to me, that's just so heartwarming. I love having been a part of Something like that. And the Rose Parade made that happen. I mean,
SPEAKER_02:is that-
SPEAKER_00:If it weren't for the Rose Parade, that wouldn't have happened. You're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Isn't that funny? So, wow. I couldn't think of a better way to wrap things up. So it's been around since 1980, an official float, that is. It is the Rose Parade or Tournament of Roses Parade. Tensao, you can write on it. 75, you can walk next to it. You can sprinkle seeds on it. You can give if you want to or buy a hat on the website if you'd be so kind. And Ray Bushnell, did I cover just about all of it?
SPEAKER_00:I think you covered just about all of it. One thing that I'd like to add is that ambassadorship thing that we talked about a little bit earlier. Please. That's$500 to become an ambassador, and the expectation is that you'll help us promote. You'll help us promote in your club, in your district, maybe at your zones, stuff like that. We've got special ambassador meetings, and there's some special swag that ambassadors get that nobody else gets, and that opportunity for one ambassador. to be drawn out and get to ride the float.
SPEAKER_02:All right, 500 bucks and you're an ambassador. 500, yeah. May have to think about that. I know of a podcast or two. Ray, thank you so much for talking to me about a beloved part of my childhood and that I still get up. I don't have to get up as early now to watch it on the East Coast, I have to admit. I would also recommend Rotarians to go look up the Rotary Rose Parade. All past years are up there. It's got great pictures and maybe throw out an idea of a of a trip to Pasadena, California. It's a pretty cool place. Absolutely, it is. One of my favorite cities. Ray, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you, Gwen. Thanks for all you do, and you've got a heart for promoting Rotary out there, and so I think it's kind of a synergy there between us. I want to thank you for having me on. It's been an honor.
SPEAKER_02:Well, thank you, and I look forward to seeing that float, if not in person.
UNKNOWN:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Let me know if you're coming out this
SPEAKER_02:way.
UNKNOWN:I would.
SPEAKER_02:I promise, Ray, I will let you know. I'm still trying to like coordinate everything. And what do you guys think? What if I did a live podcast from the gluing of the seeds and the putting down of the petals? I think it would be a lot of fun. Of course, that might have to be a video podcast because I don't think sticking seeds down would, you know, through the ears make a lot of sense. But who knows? Thank you again, Ray. And hey, clubs, check it out. The Tournament of Roses Parade, January 1st for many more years to come. And I hope to see a rotary float there as well. Well, hey, as usual, at the end of the show, I have a little bit of business. If you know someone who's turning their actions into impact locally, globally, anywhere in the world, please let me know. The email has not changed, even though the name has. RotarianPod at gmail.com and if you're liking the show do tell a friend you can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts and every time you listen to it it makes it easier for others to find us alrighty then until next week take care of yourself and the world around you and we'll hear you next time on the Action to Impact podcast have a wonderful week everybody we'll talk to you soon Thank you.