Shelter to put on pet parade for Mardi Gras

RANCHO SANTA FE — Helen Woodward Animal Center will hold its first Mardi Paws Parade Feb. 12. Pets and their owners can dress up in Mardi Gras costumes and join the free parade of animals, including dogs, cats, sheep and goats, around the center grounds 11 a.m. to noon. Participants can create parade floats using small wagons or pet strollers.

A contest will be held for “Best Dressed Mardi Gras King and Queen,” and pictures will be taken against a New Orleans style-background. Feline friends can enter a “Fat Cat” photo contest with entries voted on by parade participants and photos posted on the center’s social media sites. The first place winner receives a night at the center’s Club Pet.

Fee for Best Dressed contest is $10 per entry; proceeds support the center’s adoptions department. Fat Cat photos should be emailed to reginab@animalcenter.org.
The event is across from the center’s administration building at 6461 El Apajo Road.

For more information, go to animalcenter.org/events/mardi-paws or call (858) 756-4117, ext. 379 or email Reginab@animalcenter.org

QR Codes On Your Parade Float!!

“Rocky Mountain Power is celebrating our own history of pioneering electric power in the West,” said Richard Walje, Rocky Mountain Power president and CEO. “Salt Lake City was also a pioneer in the development of electric power, becoming just the fifth city in the world to install central-station electric street lighting. It followed cities like New York and London when it was still very much a dusty frontier town.”

Rocky Mountain Power’s float featured a bucket truck and power line, a power plant, mountains, and wind and sun fueling solar panels and wind turbines. The float made its debut in the Grand Parade in Provo last July 4, winning Most Outstanding Corporate Entry.

“We thought our centennial year was the perfect time to celebrate the state’s pioneering history along with our own,” explained Kathy Hoffman, customer and community manager.

The float was also on display at Salt Lake City’s South Towne expo center to give the community a close-up look. 

It’s equipped with a “quick response” or QR code, taking people to more information about the company and its centennial though their cell phones.

“We share a long history with the ‘Wild West’ and are excited to participate in community celebrations this summer,” Walje said. “As we commemorate our centennial, we like to remind folks that we’re just getting started. Count us in for another century of reliable electric service.”

2013 Rose Parade floats get final adieu

PASADENA - The rose petals seemed to be more brilliant, the seeds more plentiful, the banana leaves perfectly aligned and Esther and Phyllis Warren felt lucky to see Rose Parade floats up close.

The Warrens of Lubbock, Texas, were among the thousands of parade fans who spent a portion of Wednesday examining the floral stars.

"It's just completely different than the parade," said Esther Warren, who is 78 and uses a wheelchair as she perused the "Showcase of Floats" along Sierra Madre and Washington boulevards in Northeast Pasadena. "It's just wonderful, all the details."

Wednesday offered the final chance to see the parade's 39 floats before they are taken apart and some of their components recycled.

The mother-daughter duo made the trip west to see the parade for the first time, Warren said, "before we can't make it.... This may be the last year for the stamina."

Bob Cheney, Tournament of Roses member who served as the organization's president in 1992, and his wife Ruthie, who live in Arcadia, were also up early Wednesday to see the floats.

Cheney recalls when he was chairman of the post-parade showcase in the late '70s, when it was held at Victory Park, and lights were brought in to allow for nighttime viewing.

"I've been involved in the parade for 50 years and as I said, it gets in your blood," he said. "You go back and see what's going on."

Cheney said he thought this year's floats were "spectacular" and offered a new level of entertainment - such as the wedding ceremony on the Farmers Insurance Group float - that appealed to a younger crowd.

In addition, "some of city floats - La Ca ada, South Pasadena, Sierra Madre - have in the past several years done a marvelous job," Cheney said. "They used to be just a homegrown kind of thing. Now, they're winning prizes and stepped up big time."

Eight members of the Vanslooten family made the trip from Lancaster on Wednesday to see the floats after watching the Rose Parade online.

"When I was a child, I came a lot, but I never brought the family," Gail Vanslooten, 65, said. "I said they needed to see the flowers... It's really unbelievable that they can do this with just flowers."

Her children and grandchildren were especially excited to see Disneyland Resort's Destination Cars Land float since the family has a yearlong pass to the amusement park, she said.

Vanslooten was also grateful that the Tournament of Roses blocked off time for persons with disabilities before general admission since two of her sons, who have Down syndrome, and one of her granddaughters, who has cerebral palsy, are in wheelchairs.

"We're really glad they let the handicapped come in early because it's so hard with the wheelchairs when it gets so crowded," Vanslooten said.

Janet Diel, a 15-year member of the Tournament of Roses, was stationed there to offer services to persons with disabilities, including a 2013 Rose Parade program in large print and in Braille and audio tours of each of the floats.

Student ambassadors from Pasadena City College and from the Tournament of Roses, as well as Diel's daughter, Jossie, who is fluent in sign language, were also available to assist, take visitors around and let them smell or touch the floats - or hear, read or see descriptions of them.

It's to "make the whole thing an experience you and I would remember forever because we've seen it or watched it and they've been able to touch it or experience it in another way," said Diel, who has a spinal disability herself, said.

Rose Queen Vanessa Manjarrez, 17, of Mayfield Senior School and her royal court took time Wednesday to pose on their Macy's float one last time as spectators and Tournament of Roses officials snapped a slew of photos.

Manjarrez, who was preparing to go to breakfast with the court and the Tournament's Queen and Court Committee members, was all smiles despite still recuperating from the whirlwind of New Year's Day festivities.

"I'm very tired but we had a really good time, so it was all totally worth it," she said. "We're excited to be back on our float, pick a couple of flowers and go back to relaxing at home."

Parade sponsors seek float designs

A parade to celebrate the centennial of the merger of Winston and Salem will be held May 11. The Winston-Salem Centennial Commission and the Winston-Salem Jaycees, the sponsors of the parade, are looking for groups to design and build floats for each decade of the first 100 years.

Ten winning designs will be chosen and provided with a float base and $300 to help cover the cost of the float. Contestants can use additional money for the decorations.

Interested groups should choose the decade they want to depict and submit a description of the float by Feb. 15. For help in choosing a decade, important events that took place during the first 100 years are available at the centennial website. 

The entries will be judged on creativity, historical accuracy and presentation. Contest guidelines and additional information is available at  www.W-S100years.com

Lizana parade rolls before biggest crowd ever

LIZANA -- The Lizana Carnival Association parade witnessed its biggest crowd to date Sunday, with the Harrison County Sheriff's Dept. estimating the crowd at 3,500.

That fact didn't surprise its king, Anthony Moran, who reigned over the parade with his mother Shirley.

"It gets bigger every year,'' said Moran, who has been with the parade in all 10 years of its existence. "This is our first time to be king and queen. I also have my own float -- the Krewe of Oldies but Goodies -- and we will be in all the other parades in Long Beach, Diamondhead and D'Iberville.

The seven-mile parade, which started at Lizana Elementary School, had 25 floats, riders on horseback and antique cars.

Loyed Walker and his wife Jeanette of McHenry rode on the float, Krewe of Heaven Bound. This is the third year in the parade. In addition to throwing beads, they also toss Krewe cards, emblematic of each year of the parade, as well as pocket-sized Bibles.

Families line the parade route. The informality of the parade was demonstrated by the three skateboarders, who practiced their skills rolling through the staging area at the elementary school.

One of the signs of the family atmosphere was in the float, Krewe of Tradition. Madie Cuevas was the princess for the float and the Cuevas family rides on the float. They've been in the parade since its inception.

"It's all about fun and a lot of friendly people, said Angie Cuevas, mother of Madie. "That's what's so nice about this parade.''

Floyd Babin Jr. helped organize the parade in its first year and continues to help put on the parade.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/01/27/4431031/lizana-carnival-parade-rolls-before.html#storylink=cpy

Barkus 2013, dog-lovers Mardi Gras parade!

The 2013 Barkus parade has gone to the dogs yet again. Of course, that’s the point of the canine-oriented Carnival tradition. This year many of the four-legged marchers and their masters took a satiric bite out of the endearingly down-home reality television show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which centers on a kiddy beauty pageant contestant. Spectators were treated to interpretations titled Honey Bow Wow, Honey Roux Boux, Buddy Boo Boo, Honey Bee Bees, Honey Rue Rue and, naturally, the Krewe of Honey Do Do.

Barkus’s main function has always been a see-and-be-seen opportunity for man’s best friends and those that love them -- with some gentle subversion of the grander parades mixed in. Part of the charm is that it’s not a spectacle that takes itself too seriously. Considering the single mindedness of the four-legged marchers, it’s also never been the most tightly structured procession. Having said that, from my vantage point on Dumaine Street near Bourbon Street this afternoon, Barkus 2013 seemed a bit too casual, with too many rudimentary costumes, uninspired throws and gaps in the parade progress.

Don’t get me wrong. The gorgeous spring-like weather, the convivial crowd, the French Quarter atmosphere and the endless varieties of passing pooches made for an amusing afternoon – how often do you see a chocolate Shar Pei in a tutu and tiara. And Barkus’s F-18 fly over was especially stirring. Okay, I know that the jet streaking over the Vieux Carre was probably just a coincidence, but since I gave the Chewbacchus parade credit for the full moon, I felt it was only fair to give the nod to Barkus for the fighter plane.

Favorite canine costume: The pair of rainbow-colored (apparently) spray-painted poodles that seemed to be part of the audience instead of the parade – it’s not always easy to tell.

The rating: Doug MacCash rates select 2013 Mardi Gras parades. From best to worst, the ratings are: Ruler of the Route, Rolling in the Right Direction and Lost its Way.