The LCFTRA embraces the parade theme of “The Magic in Teamwork.” 

By Eliza PARTIKA

The La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association (LCFTRA) finalized its Tournament of Roses entry Monday, prepping and adding flowers, plants and seeds that will adorn the float. This year’s float, titled “Goin’ Nutz,” is one of many this year with motifs honoring victims of January’s wildfires and symbolizing the hope of rebuilding. 

“Many of us lost our homes,” said Pam Widenbeck, this year’s LCFTRA president of Float Development. “It’s very quiet under the bridge this year.” LCFTRA puts the finishing touches on its entry underneath the Foothill Boulevard overpass of the 210 Freeway near the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Hampton Road.

Widenbeck and her husband watched their home burn on television and have spent the last year sifting through the wreckage for cherished memories and coming to grips with what was lost. Widenbeck described how she will have to piece together her tournament parade jumpsuit that was lost in the fire, which had patches and pins from every float she has worked on in her 20 years with LCFTRA. But with that loss, she said, comes hope. 

When Widenbeck and former president Ernest Koeppen were brainstorming how to create the wheelbarrow the skunk on the float will use to transport acorns to neighbors in need, Koeppen asked if he could go back to Widenbeck’s house with her to retrieve her wheelbarrow from her burnt garage. They went together to retrieve the wheelbarrow and to salvage tools that were still in working condition to help build this year’s float. 

“So that’s my wheelbarrow the skunk will be holding,” she said.

Widenbeck said she has seen incredible teamwork in the volunteers this year, embodying the Tournament of Roses’ 2026 theme “The Magic in Teamwork.” 

“Something magical has happened this year. When something needs to be done, volunteers will jump in and do it. There is no ‘that’s my job,’ ‘that’s your job.’ I want to bottle it like fairy dust,” she said. 

LCFTRA partnered with The Bunny Museum in Altadena to create the bunny rabbit on this year’s float, which co-founders Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski named Robbie-Rah. 

“We chose Robbie-Rah because he looks like one of our previous bunnies (brown with a white tummy),” said Frazee. “And he appears to be the leader on the float, so we added -Rah to his name. In Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972), a ‘prince’ or ‘chief’ has ‘-rah’ added to a leaders’ name.”

Frazee and Lubanski decorated Robbie-Rah’s fur with soft, light brown bunny tail grass and ornamental bunny tail seed heads and proudly displayed it on their Instagram.  

Jennifer Lazo, Decorating co-chair, said Robbie-Rah will be donated to the museum at the conclusion of this year’s parade. The float bunny will be on display at the museum’s new location. 

Lazo said she is excited to be able to help The Bunny Museum rebuild. 

“They got to come and visit us a couple of days ago and take a look at the bunny, help decorate the bunny and give us some pointers on accurate bunny looks, which was fun,” said Lazo. “The whole point of this float is neighbors helping neighbors. [On our float] the local animals are helping their neighbors who are hungry with emergency nuts. And so we wanted a sort of actual representation of helping our neighbors.” 

Frazee added, “The Bunny Museum had 10 Rose Parade float bunnies before the fire. After the fire we have 5 ½  – all without their organic materials.

“Receiving Robbie-Rah with his brown fur made of bunny tail ornamental grass and the white cotton tummy will be our first Rose Parade float bunny with its original coverings on display in The Bunny Museum when it is rebuilt. It is a long and expensive process which will take three to four years.”

Careful craftsmanship has gone into the meadow neighborhood and the woodland inhabitants, particularly with the owl, which will be directing the acorn distribution. Lazo and long-time deco lead Hannah Wade found, stripped and cut by hand the palm bark for his wings, separating the pieces that could shape the wings from the naturally-occurring white fuzz that would form the wings’ down. 

“So we had to figure out how to simulate … the feathers of an actual owl’s wing. So I spent half a day testing shapes and sizes, that sort of thing,” she said.

There are about 37 floral arrangements throughout the meadow – purples, yellow, orange, and pink themes – including roses, delphiniums, mums, buttons, bells of iron, stock, snapdragons and asparagus fern, decorating the meadow in patterns of orange, pinks, blues and yellows. 

Lazo said that while the design shows the simpleness of a meadow and the silliness of their “goin’ nutz” concept, it also shows the incredible heart of neighbors helping one another. 

“They’re going nuts in the silliest ways possible. These are not very efficient animals in their nut-movement strategies. You know, one is the baby possum on a zip line, zip lining across the lake, and the lake will make it clear that possums don’t always get a good grip on the acorns they carry. Every time [the possum] goes across the slingshot onto the raft is also not … the most effective way of moving the acorns across the float but they all have good intentions and good hearts and are bringing those emergency acorns to their neighbors,” she said. 

Wade said her favorite part of her yearly pilgrimage from Scottsdale, Arizona is getting to be part of something in the place she grew up, alongside friends. 

“Being able to see something from start to finish that is so closely tied into the identity of where I’m from [is my favorite part] … because I grew up in Pasadena as well, and I get to see the same people every year – year after year. And that really keeps me coming back because we all get to catch up and we are all doing something that we really love. So it’s kind of like coming home to your family a little bit,” Wade said.

“It is an exciting honor to donate to the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association float’s bunny,” said Frazee. “It is a hop(eful) sign of the museum hoppin’ back up again.”