Medford, Ore. — For more than a century, excitement builds for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Even if you’re not into football, you can appreciate the parade. This year, a southern Oregon florist decided to fulfill her longtime dream of working on one of the many extravagant floats.
For more than 100 years, the rose parade has featured hundreds of performances, musical guests, and who could forget – the floats.
This year, one of Medford’s own decided she wanted to dip her hands in the pot. NBC5 News got the chance to sit down with one of the volunteers, Sabrina Carroll, via FaceTime Friday afternoon.
“I just love for flowers and I have a desire to come and help on the float and I finally got to,” Carroll said.
You might recognize Sabrina, she owns B. Cazwells Floral Dezines in Medford.
“The thousands of flowers they probably use more flowers here on the parade than I use all year long,” Carroll said.
She’s been working with flowers for more than 15 years.
“Have a couple friends that a couple of years ago knew that it was a dream of mine to come see the rose parade,” Carroll said.
That’s when Carroll and her friends learned about the opportunity to volunteer at the event.
“It’s quite a party atmosphere, everyone is here to, of course, watch the parade. They get there the night before, they camp out,” Carroll said.
Carroll said if you really want to put the Rose Parade into perspective – think of it this way.
“Pear Blossom times 100,” Carroll said.
Sabrina and the designer from her store are helping the Sierra Madre Float Association with its float.
The float’s theme this year, is chivalry.
“The story – the way that the mouse took the thorn from the lion’s paw. This is a dragon and the knight in shining armor is taking the thorn out of the dragon paw,” Carroll said.
The float’s made up of intricacies, which Carroll got to help create.
“They’ve got a dragon that we’re gluing Galex leaves onto the scales and then the scales are individually placed onto the dragon,” Carroll said.
She said as a floral enthusiast, her favorite part about the Rose Parade – everything is made from natural materials.
“All of the decoration on the float has to be natural, or it’s a flower, so different types of flowers, different colors and that’s when you watch the parade, you’ll get that commentary about the different flowers that they use,” Carroll said.
‘the rose parade’ airs at 8 a.m. New Year’s Day on NBC5. Carroll said though they won’t be the ones riding the float during the parade, she and her fellow volunteers are more than excited to watch it from the audience.
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