Plans for a Seal Beach Float in 2015 Rose Parade Dashed

Unable to come clinch enough funding, Seal Beach will not have a float in the 2015 Rose Parade after all, the committee organizing the efforts announced today.

In March 2014 the city and people of Seal Beach were invited to participate in the 126th Rose Parade on Jan. 1, 2015 as part of a kickoff to Seal Beach’s centennial year as a city.

“A great honor indeed, but in order to design and construct the float the Rose Parade required a minimum budget of $250,000, a daunting fundraising task by any means.” says a  press release from the Seal Beach Rose Parade Float Committee. “However, using a privately formed committee and 100 percent private funding, efforts went forward to attempt to raise the money using both an opportunity drawing as well as a plea to corporate sponsors to support the float effort.

But when Rose Parade officials set a fundraising deadline of July 31, local organizers knew they couldn’t pull it off.

“This final deadline was simply too much to overcome for the small private Seal Beach Roses Team,” the press release says.

From the release:

It’s with a heavy heart that we shelve our efforts to enter a float in next year’s Rose Parade. The invitation was a great honor and the response from Seal Beach residents was positive and encouraging. However, we were just unable to garner the necessary financial support in the prohibitive time frame.

Needless to say, the float committee and its supporters felt this would be a great opportunity for the City of Seal Beach and its local businesses to benefit from international exposure. We have such a beautiful city with great people and we wanted nothing more than for this to be a successful campaign. It just wasn’t meant to be.

The committee is offering refunds to those who have purchased opportunity drawing tickets. The refunds will be issued on a request basis and will include a small deduction for administrative costs. Requests for refunds can be sent to sealbeachroses2015@gmail.com.

The Seal Beach Rose Parade Float Committee would like to extend a sincere congratulations to the city and people of Seal Beach as we enter into our centennial year as an incorporated city. The city itself is in the process of planning a centennial celebration and will be raising money to make it happen. We encourage people to support their efforts and make 2015 a year to remember.