An Over Coffee® special-edition podcast, in celebration of Pasadena's 131st Rose Parade®!

"Aquatic Aspirations" is the name of  Cal Poly Universities' seventy-second Rose Parade® entry.

And on Sunday, December 29th, during "Decorating Places", we met four of the creative contributors who are making the float a reality.

Cal Poly University biology major Iliana Sansur was onsite at Phoenix Decorating Company's Rosemont Pavilion.  And she and her fellow students were decorating their float entry.  The clock was ticking--they had just under sixty hours before the float would have to leave for the parade route, and its appearance in the 2020 Tournament of Roses® parade.

Since 1949, Cal Poly University students have been participating in the Rose Parade®.  Since Cal Poly specializes in engineering disciplines, the students' float entries often wind up introducing new technology and innovations.  And the Cal Poly Universities float actually represents the efforts of two campuses.  Students from both the Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campuses build the float--one half on each campus!

And the Cal Poly Universities float represents support of local farmers.

Materials on this year's float, all of which must be organic, are more than 85 percent grown in California.

Onsite at Rosemont were three representatives of the California Cut Flower Commission, which works with Cal Poly Universities to donate the materials used on the float.

CCFC CEO Dave Pruitt (left), Event Coordinator and Procurement Specialist Anna Kalins (center) and Chairman Dan Vordale, who is also the President of Lompoc-based Ocean View Flowers, explained what was involved in growing and procuring the flowers for the float.

Dan said around twenty-two California farms grew and contributed flowers for this year's Cal Poly Universities float!

That's going to amount to another knock-your-eyes-out-gorgeous entry by Cal Poly Universities on New Year's Day, 2020!   We can't wait to see it.

Pasadena Tournament of Roses®' 131st Rose Parade® starts at 8 am, Pacific time, on Wednesday, January 1, 2020.  Happy New Year!