The annual Rose Parade down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena is an iconic New Year’s tradition (if you weren’t sure of its cultural significance, it’s part of the climax in The Bee Movie. Really prestigious), especially for us South Californians since it practically takes place in our backyard.
But what you might not know is that Torrance High students were behind many of the floats this year. Thanks to Kiwanis International, numerous schools in Southern California had the opportunity to help craft floats for the 2025 Rose Parade.
Students met at Phoenix Decorating Company on December 27th in Irwindale, where the floats are stored in preparation for the parade. Decorating started around 4:00 PM and didn’t end until 11, with a short break for dinner in between.
“I like volunteering. I knew a lot of people who were gonna be there, and also it just sounded fun.” PJ Reasbeck, a junior, says on why he decided to go.
“I helped lift heavy flowers, and I worked on a Ferris Bueller themed float.” Reasbeck speaks of the Illinois Office of Tourism’s float, themed around the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
According to Pasadena Star-News, a local newspaper for the area, this year had the largest number of spectators since before the pandemic.
Senior Kayla Yonekawa describes the work she did for Western Asset’s float: “I helped my friend decorate one of the butterflies, we had to put glue on the butterfly and then cover it in rose petals and seeds.”
Yonekawa recalls watching the Rose Parade on New Year’s morning: “I saw the Wicked float, which I remembered sending to my friend, and then I saw it on TV. So that was pretty cool.”
Torrance High’s Kiwins club regularly helps on the Rose Parade every year, and there are plenty of volunteer opportunities if you’d like to have a hand in putting together the parade when it comes back around at the end of the year.
