Tag: Northwestern Mutual

Inspiring health and well-being through beauty in the 2018 Rose Parade

On: By: LBM
Northwestern Mutual is celebrating five years of its Childhood Cancer Program. “Letting Kids Be Kids” features scenes from camps like ones the kids on the float have attended. Pediatric oncologist and Camp Periwinkle medical director Dr. ZoAnn Dreyer and her husband Dr. Deff Dreyer are on the porch

by Laura Berthold Monteros

Inspiring people to live healthier and happier lives by creating scenes in flowers is a frequent message of Rose Parade floats. The floats in the gallery below presented themes of fun, food, and fearlessness in the 129th Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1, 2018.

Here’s the basic info on each; riders and flowering are in the captions. Be sure to check out the 2018 Rose Parade page for a listing of all the articles about floats on TheRoseExaminer.com.

  • Kaiser Permanente, “Inspiring Healthy Communities,” Fiesta Parade Floats, Stanley Meyer designer
  • Miracle-Gro, “150 Years of Growing,” Fiesta Parade Floats, Stanley Meyer
  • Northwestern Mutual, “Letting Kids Be Kids,” Fiesta Parade Floats, Stanley Meyer
  • The Forum, “The Story Lives On,” Phoenix Decorating Company
  • 24 Hour Fitness, “Proud Sponsor of Everyday Athletes,” AES, John Ramirez designer
  • AIDS Healthcare Foundation, “Keeping the Promise,” Fiesta Parade Floats, Art Aguirre designer
  • Lucy Pet, “Paws for Life,” Fiesta Parade Floats, Mike Abboud designer; here’s a video to go with it: https://youtu.be/C-Opm9b2WDk

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Swaying veggies, swinging apples, and twisting pea pods joined animated insects on the Kaiser Permanente float, which had 46 individual moving parts. It took 7,000 volunteer hours to complete. Riders were Chefs Neil Fraser and Linda Watson, Devon and Sean Adelman, Dr. Kenneth Lopez, Teri Yamasake RN, Alice Rolls, Margaret Dekoven, Linda Ginenthal.
Outwalkers included 25 Hollywood High School students, plus physicians from the school’s wellness center, run by Kaiser Permanente. More 12,000 green roses and 4,000 Santana orange roses were used. Thousands of fresh fruits and vegetables dotted the gardens.
Miracle-Gro kicked off its 150th year by celebrating backyard gardens. The float featured 150 different botanical materials from six continents, including fresh vegetables and soil-less grass. Flowers included roses (more than 20,000), lilies, tulips, daffodils, lisianthus, hydrangea, tuberose, narcissus, iris, liatris, forsythia, gerbera, delphinium, larkspur, and dendrobium.
Ty Pennington flipped flower “burgers” on the smoking grill, with Olin Snakenborg of Torrance, father and son Tyler and Ryker from Seattle, Mary Kimball from West Sacramento, and Shirly Barrett and Emmanuel "Manny" Garcia (Muir HS Ranch) from Pasadena Unified School District.
Northwestern Mutual showed even kids with cancer enjoy camping. At the flickering campfire are Chris Serrano, blind since he was a toddler, and Scott Cohen, his counselor from Camp Ronald McDonald. In near canoe: Mary Perkins, NjoyItAll Camp, and her cousin Nina; far canoe: brothers Bennett Unger, Camp One Step, and brother Boden. Note the observer in the right corner.
“Letting Kids Be Kids” was flowered with 12,000 Mokara and Golden Shower orchids. 12,000 blue iris, and 10,000 peach and coral roses. Animation: The canoes “raced” each other, sliding past each other; fish jumped, ducks circled on the lake, smoke billowed from the chimney.
It may look like an oversized birthday cake, frosted with white mums and red carnations, but there’s a surprise inside. The entry and deck of the Fabulous Forum is carpeted with red, yellow, and orange roses, orchids, and white iris. More than 193,000 flowers were used.
Earth, Wind & Fire rose out of the Forum on a giant elevator to the roars of the crowd. This was the band’s first appearance on a Rose Parade float. The 27-foot-tall video board tower, a replica of the iconic board in Inglewood, showed video and special 50th anniversary messages.
The Forum in Inglewood celebrates its 50th anniversary with Earth, Wind & Fire. The Forum was built to house the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as to host concerts and other large events.
24 Hour Fitness celebrated winter sports and medal-winning athletes on “Proud Sponsor of Everyday Athletes.” Represented are Elana Meyers Taylor, first black bobsled pilot to win an Olympic medal and first US woman to win two; freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy; and Paralympic sled hockey player Rico Roman.
Paralympist and military veteran Rico Roman rode the float with 24 Hour Fitness trainers, while 20 GX instructors accompanied the float. Flowering included more than 12,000 yellow, pick, white, red, and orange roses; 11,000 carnations; and 2,000 orchids.
For the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., AIDS Healthcare Foundation honored the civil rights leader with a depiction of the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. AHF and its outreach Black Leadership AIDS Crisis Committee stated, ‘Sadly, with the recent turn of events in Charlottesville and elsewhere in the country regarding civil rights and other social justice issues… “Keeping the Promise”…gained all the more resonance as AHF's 2018 theme.”
Riders on the AIDS Healthcare Foundation float were Susan Bro, representing her daughter Heather Heyer, and Alfred Wilson, ED and co-founder with Pres. Bro of the Heather Heyer Foundation; Cynthia Davis, MPH and the Rev. Kelvin Sauls, both AHF board members; two youths who won the #StandAgainstHate essay contest. The observer stands behind.
The monument is about one-third the size of the MLK Stone of Hope in Washington D.C. The float was flowered with 20,000 red Freedom roses, iris, orchids, anthuriums, amaryllis, gladiolus, tulips, lilies, and carnations.
Lucy Pet salutes heroic animals: search dog Rocket and firefighter Mike Stornetta, teacup chihuahua Dixie-Wixie with Danny Trejo, Sirius with Tammie Ashley, mother of his deceased Marine handler, Jax with handler Senior Officer Daniel Casson. On the front are Surfin’ Jack, Coppertone, and Lucy with Ally Barron, Bailey Herrick, Van Bush and Keaton Yellin.
A YouTube star, Tara the cat saved then 4-year-old Jeremy Triantafilo from a vicious dog who pulled him off his bike. Tara jumped a dog five times her size and chased him down the street, then returned to check on Jeremy. Riding with Tara and Jeremy are his parents, Roger and Erica.
A rescue helicopter hovers up and down and the propellers spin over the Lucy Pet float. Flowering included 15,000 red Freedom roses, with arrangements and deck gardens of long-stemmed roses, anthuriums, carnations, and ilex berries. Floragraphs used onion and poppy seed and rice to create a palette of nine shades.
We didn’t get a shot of the entire Lucy Pet float, so this rendering, courtesy Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, will give an idea of its scope. The rotating octagon pictured a military working dog, FEMA dog, K9 police team, dog in boots and harness, Sgt. Joshua Ashley with Sirius, canines and handlers rappelling from a Blackhawk, and Tara, the cat that saved a child from a dog attack.