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Rose Parade Float Highlights Patients’ Will to Overcome Challenges and Reach their Goals

Jan 10, 2023
Kenneth and JJ Craven, National Patient Ambassadors in front of float

Representatives of Shriners Children's in front of the 2023 Rose Parade Float, "Back in the Game"

For the 12th year in a row, Shriners Children’s participated in the iconic Rose Parade presented by Honda. Eight representatives, including several Patient Ambassadors, rode on the float during the 134th annual parade. The parade took place on January 2 in Pasadena, California, and drew in hundreds of thousands of viewers and spectators.

This year’s float, entitled Back in the Game, depicted our patients’ joy in overcoming challenges and realizing their dreams. To represent our patients’ determination to get Back in the Game, the float portrayed a young boy in a wheelchair playing basketball and a girl with a prosthetic leg on a putting green. More than 200 volunteers came together in support of Shriners Children’s to decorate the float.

Among the float riders were National Patient Ambassadors Katherine and Parker, two young athletes who, with Shriners Children’s help, overcame devastating injuries in car accidents and returned to playing competitive sports. They were joined by Kenneth Craven, the CEO of the Shriners International fraternity, his wife, Jennifer, and honored guests from Shriners International and Shriners Children’s.

For our patients, the medical journey is just that: a journey, not a destination. The journey may be filled with challenges, and each one overcome represents a milestone achieved and a corner turned.
Kenneth Craven, CEO of Shriners International

Shriners Children’s strives to help patients meet their goals and offers them opportunities to try new things and play just as their peers do, through adaptive sports from wheelchair basketball camps to adaptive bicycling, rowing and more. In addition, Shriners Children’s Pediatric Orthotic and Prosthetic Services create custom prosthetics for kids to engage in all the activities they love, from recreational activities to creative endeavors.

Founded in 1922, Shriners Children's recently celebrated 100 years of providing hope and healing to children. With this year marking the beginning of the next 100 years of care, the 2023 Rose Parade float perfectly set the stage for the next century of bringing compassionate care to children around the world.

Shriners Children's Float, Back in the Game, at the 2023 Rose Parade

For the 12th consecutive year, Shriners Children’s participated in the iconic Rose Parade presented by Honda. This year’s float, entitled Back in the Game, depicted our patients’ joy in overcoming challenges and realizing their dreams. The parade took place on January 2 in Pasadena, California, and drew in hundreds of thousands of viewers and spectators.
View Transcript

[Music]

[Shriners Children's logo]

Katherine, National Patient Ambassador:
I am so excited to be here. Seeing all the floats lined up really gets you geared up and ready to go, and seeing how excited everyone is to be here. So I just can't wait for the day to start.

Mel Bower, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Shriners Children's:
So our theme song this year is Unstoppable, and we think that ties in perfectly to our theme of back in the game because our kids don't give up, and when they face challenges of any kind, we at Shriners and our medical teams and our care teams, we try to help them overcome all of that, and that's a perfect way for us to tell our story today at the Rose Parade.

JJ Craven, First Lady, Shriners International:
It is so exciting to be here. Everybody's coming by, they're thanking us, they're telling us stories about how their family members have been helped by Shriners Children's.

Kenneth G. "Kenny" Craven, Imperial Potentate, Shriners International:
I had one story about a lady come up to me and said her son was a patient at our hospital. So it's a great time to be out here this morning, get to see a lot of people and tell our story about Shriner's hospitals.

Parker, National Patient Ambassador:
It's been pretty cool seeing all the people, being able to pass out pens, and I'm just ready for it to go by and be able to have the nice experience and I'm just ready to get into the action of it.

Jim Doel, Trustee, Board of Trustees, Shriners Children's:
It's amazing. The work is so intricate, it's beautiful, and it reflects quite accurately the hundreds of hours that have been put into producing the float by our volunteers, and we're so thankful for that.

Speaker 7:
I don't think I've been more proud to be a part of Shriners Children's than I am this morning. And everyone out there watching, they should be very proud of this beautiful float.

Bob Roller, Director, Sports Management:
It's really an honor for our sporting events to be a part of Shriner's Children's float this year. A global world audience will see our story today and hear about it with our back in the game theme for our sporting event.

[End screen: Shriners Children's logo, FB@ShrinersChildrens, Twitter@ShrinersHosp, Instagram@ShrinersHospitals]

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A Look at our Rose Parade Float, "Back in the Game"

The 2023 Shriners Children's Rose Parade float concept

Putting the final touches on the float

Kenneth Craven, the CEO of the Shriners International fraternity, and his wife, Jennifer, in front of the finished float

The float making its way down the streets of Pasadena during the 2023 Rose Parade

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