Award-Winning Rose Parade Float Unites and Embodies Nurses
A project years in the planning reached fruition on New Year’s Day when the first-ever Nurses Float turned onto Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena and took its place in line as part of the 124th Rose Parade.
CANP’s Greater Pasadena Chapter was one of many nursing organizations involved, but with the event taking place in their proverbial backyard, the chapter was a driving force in the effort. Chapter members were active in every aspect of the project, from grassroots fundraising drives to the painstaking process of decorating the float.
In between, the chapter hosted a kickoff party featuring Tournament of Roses President Sally Bixby, the first registered nurse ever to hold the position. It was Bixby’s impending ascension to the presidency that inspired colleagues five years ago to conceive the parade float idea as a way to honor both her and the nursing profession.
The float’s design sought to depict qualities such as caring, commitment, compassion, confidence, conscientiousness, and intelligence that embody the nursing profession. The qualities were represented in metaphorical form by a menagerie of woodland creatures. Flowers 4 the Float, the non-profit corporation created to raise funds for the project, outlined the concepts represented by the animals depicted:
"The mother deer and baby represent the quality of Caring. The Owls represent the wisdom and the conscientiousness, and the rabbit represents fertility as we support not only this function in our patients but also as we recruit, educate, and nurture new nurses into the profession. The Raccoon represents intelligence, those nurses who work at night, have compassion that supports patients through those long night hours and you can see the raccoon is gently moving the turtle forward, which represents the patient and their journey to health. The squirrel represents the commitment that nurses have to making sure the patient has everything they need. The birds and butterflies are the supportive environment of A Healing Place.
The three birds on the branch are Nightingales representing the founder of the nursing profession, Florence Nightingale, who sang loud and clear about what was needed to improve patient care in hospitals. The lanterns light the path to healing and a return to a quality of life. Also they are replicas of the original Florence Nightingale lamp that she used as she walked the halls of the hospitals."
The float was entitled “A Healing Place” since, as Flowers 4 the Float explained, “Nurses create A Healing Place with their presence. The qualities of a nurse make it possible to create A Healing Place anywhere and under any circumstance.”
“A Healing Place” was named as winner of the Craftsman’s Trophy, recognizing outstanding showmanship and dramatic impact.
See photos from the CANP Greater Pasadena Chapter’s kickoff party, held December 8, 2012, as well as images from the float-decorating process.