The Rose Parade had long been on Stacy Ritter’s bucket list.
In 2020, she and her husband finally made it, all the way to Pasadena from Greater Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
And it was all that they’d hoped for. The colors. The scent of flowers wafting around. The vibe.
“We walked away astounded,” she said.
Then came 2023, when while watching the parade from afar it stuck with her that another state had actually had a float in the 5.5-mile parade, seen by tens of millions all over the world.
The light bulbs started to go off: So-called “destination floats” are a thing. And as CEO and president of Visit Lauderdale, the official marketing organization for Greater Fort Lauderdale, she was in a position to do something about it.
Fast forward to New Year’s Eve 2023. At a float barn in the San Gabriel Valley, Ritter and her team of volunteers were busy counting down to the moment when their first-ever float — echoing the organization’s “Everyone Under the Sun” branding campaign — takes to Colorado Boulevard.
That campaign is underscored by diversity.
Meanwhile, headlines in Florida in the era of conservative Gov. Ron DeSantis — a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination who has feuded publicly with California’s blue-steeped Gov. Gavin Newsom — have been dominated by battles over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bills and efforts to limit immigration into the state.
Lauderdale is bucking the headlines. “Everyone Under the Sun” is designed to offer a different message, Ritter said, one of inclusion.
Efforts to reach DeSantis’ office for this story were unsuccessful. The governor’s office, however, has maintained that his policies have not impacted tourism in the state. In November, DeSantis released a statement declaring that the state had broken its third-quarter record for visitors, with 35.1 million tourists from July to September this year.
“Florida continues to set records for visitation because of our commitment to allowing visitors to enjoy their travels without arbitrary government restrictions,” said DeSantis in a statement. “Florida will continue to be a beacon of freedom for travelers.”
Ritter and her team, meanwhile, were concerned about the nation’s take on Florida amid the current divisive political climate. She set forth to design a float that showed Florida in a welcoming light.
“First, it’s about the beauty of the place I’ve called home for 50 years,” she said. But second, “to represent who we are as a multicultural community.”
After all, what gets lost in those headlines is that Lauderdale is comprised of 2 million people, descending from 170 nations who speak nearly 150 languages. There are gay people, indigenous people, immigrants, old and young, she said.
“That might not be a message that people think of when they think of Florida,” these days, she said.
The float, which is 24 feet long by 18 feet wide and 55 feet high, depicts Greater Fort Lauderdale’s tropical “paradise,” using 45,000 flowers — 1,000 varieties of roses, coupled with flax seeds, brussels sprouts, sesame seeds, blue statice, heliconia and cymbidium orchids.
It features life-sized alligators, their tails waving, “friendly manatees” and sea turtles — a take on Lauderdale’s ecosystem, spanning from the Everglades to the Atlantic.
But ultimately, it’s the people aboard who will personify the inclusive vision of the float’s designers.
Float riders include Miss Florida Seminole Princess Thomlynn Billie; LGBTQ human rights leader Stuart Milk — nephew of the late, slain leader Harvey Milk; Broward County Public Schools Principal of the Year Marie Hautigan; Florida Panthers’ hockey star Bill Lindsay; Florida Panthers mascot Stanley C. Panther; and Alexander Star, a local Emmy-nominated songwriter, performer, and impact artist who will perform his “Laudy Dayo,” a destination anthem for Greater Fort Lauderdale.
“Every single piece of this was very intentional,” Ritter said, echoing the design cues meant to convey the message.
That message is not new for the group, which has long promoted the diversity of the region. But Ritter said in an era of headlines that could be perceived as unwelcoming, the message has been sharpened.
The effort coincides with what the Tournament of Roses says is a real effort for the 135-year-old event to be more inclusive.
Students of the parade’s history well remember the era that yielded moments, such as when Joan Williams, named “Miss Crown City” in 1957, a traditional honor that would allow her to ride on a city-sponsored float during the Rose Parade on Jan. 1, 1958. Only one thing: She was African-American. So the honor was taken away.
Nearly 60 years later she was seated at the head of the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day 2015 as it cruised down Colorado Boulevard.
Tournament officials now tout the parade’s inclusivity, from its marching bands to its grand marshals.
“In alignment with our mission, the Tournament of Roses strives to reflect not only the Pasadena community but our community of fans around the world,” Tournament officials said, touting the 2024 Rose Parade’s inclusion of two international bands, Japan and Costa Rica, and the Blue & Gold Marching Machine of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, an HBCU band.
Floats in the 2024 Rose Parade also include the American Armenian Rose Float Association.
The OneLegacy Donate Life shares the culture of the Hopi tribe.
Ultimately, Ritter said the float was not designed with Gov. DeSantis as its audience. It was about how they could represent Lauderdale to the world, she said.
“This isn’t about the governor of the state of Florida,” she said. “It’s about Fort Lauderdale. We didn’t sit around the table and talk about specific elected officials.”