Shriners Hospitals for Children to Participate in 130th Rose Parade Presented by Honda
Float theme showcases health care system's encouraging, nurturing environment for children
PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- For the ninth consecutive year, Shriners Hospitals for Children® will participate in the iconic Rose Parade on New Year's Day. Twelve representatives will ride on the float entitled Fezzy's Garden of Hope and Healing. The float conveys the encouraging, nurturing environment at Shriners Hospitals for Children where patients and families can find respite, calm and emotional strength.
The float features Fezzy®, the lovable Shriners Hospitals mascot – in his seventh appearance on the organization's float – and a few friends who are tending to a lush garden. Fezzy is admiring the vibrant plants and beautiful flowers they have worked so hard to cultivate, and enjoying the harmonious spirit of hope and healing found in the garden. Butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors have come to admire their handiwork. Riding on the float are Imperial Potentate Jim Cain, and his wife Patsy, celebrity ambassadors RJ Mitte and Trace Adkins, Shriners Hospitals patients Riley, Lily and Rachel, and several other honored guests.
The name Fezzy's Garden of Hope and Healing, symbolizes more than just the natural elements on the float. Some Shriners Hospitals locations have gardens available for patients and families. The styles and purposes of the gardens are as diverse as nature itself, and range from quiet places, to gardens that can be used for rehabilitative and therapeutic purposes, to actual vegetable and herb gardens where the patients plant, grow and enjoy the end results. Gardens are places of harmony, growth and renewal, or healing, which are important aspects of the goals of Shriners Hospitals for Children.
The Rose Parade's theme, The Melody of Life aligns perfectly with our organization's goal of ensuring that our patients fully participate in their communities, and discover they can achieve far more than ever expected. Riley, a patient at our Tampa hospital, is active in high school sports and serves as a mentor to another patient with the same rare condition. Lily is studying to be a nurse, and hopes to one day provide the same level of quality care and compassion to others that she received at Shriners Medical Center in Lexington. Rachel is a high school student, but has been taking college courses since she was 14, and has even studied abroad in Europe.
Other float riders include actor and former Shriners Hospitals patient RJ Mitte, country music singer Trace Adkins, leadership from DeMolay International and Daughters of the Nile (two Masonic affiliated organizations) and past leadership of Shriners International.
The Shriners Hospitals for Children float will be on display for pre-judging and float riders will be available for media interviews starting at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 30, 2018, at Phoenix Decorating Co., Rose Float Plaza South, 5400 Irwindale Ave., Irwindale, CA 91706.
About Shriners Hospitals for Children
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a health care system with locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Our staff is dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing pediatric specialty care, conducting innovative research, and offering outstanding educational programs for medical professionals. Children up to age 18 with orthpaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care regardless of the families' ability to pay. All services are provided in a compassionate, family-centered environment. For more information, please visit shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.
Contact: Mel Bower
813-233-6836
mbower(at)shrinenet.org
SOURCE Shriners Hospitals for Children
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