SOCIETY, EVENTS & OTHER GOOD CAUSES
By Liz Hezlep

More than two hundred and forty turned out early last Thursday morning for The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce’s 20th annual Tournament of Roses President’s Breakfast at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena to celebrate the Tournament of Roses Association’s contribution to the civic pride and economic vitality of our community.
Bill Podley, Chamber of Commerce president, presided over the special tribute.
“I think we all understand that the T of R is an incredibly important entity in this community,” said Podley. “Its efforts to bring the kind of attention to our city every January 1st that is important to our business climate has certainly succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. The economic impact on the region is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $350 million annually, as a result of the Tournament’s many programs and, of course, New Year’s. Recently the Rose Bowl game was ranked no. 5 on Forbes magazine’s list of revenue generating sports events. Only the Super Bowl, the Olympics, World Cup Soccer the Daytona 500 exceed. We are here today because we want to show our appreciation, and express our gratitude, to the dedicated group for the tremendous positive impact their events have had on the economic health of our community for the past nearly twelve decades.”
In introducing special guest C.L.Keedy, the 2008 Tournament of Roses president, Podley noted, “Keedy is leading the 119th Rose parade and the 94th Rose Bowl game this year and has selected as the theme Passport to World Celebrations.
Keedy has been a volunteer member of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association since 1975 and was elected to the Executive Committee in 2000.
Throughout his extensive Tournament career, Keedy has served on, and chaired ,various committees including budget and finance, business development, game policy, government and community affairs, guest luncheon, membership, music, parade operations, personnel, post parade, public relations, queen and court and real estate.
In addition, Keedy’s community involvement include being a member of the Optimist Club of Pasadena, a former member of the Pasadena Rotary, AYSO referee and a graduate of the Pasadena Police Department’s Citizen Police Academy. He also serves on the board of directors and is a medical council member of the Huntington Medical Research Institute.
Keedy began by saying “As Bill said, the theme this year is Passport of World Celebrations and we have a fascinating parade lined up for this January 1st. with four international bands coming from Japan, Canada, Switzerland and El Salvador, and a half dozen states from around the U.S. Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. It has been a pleasure for my wife and I to travel around and visit all these bands in the different communities. Actually [the theme] is a celebration of community support and pride.”
He went on to share some of their experiences. “In the community of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, just west of Toronto, they decided they needed a community program that would help their youth, allow their youth to do something to contribute to their community and solve some of their youth problems. So they started a youth band. That band is 16 years old and this is the 3rd time that they will be in the Rose Parade. Any child in that community can join. If they didn’t know how to play an instrument it didn’t matter, they started them off with cymbals.”
They visited Knightsville, Florida.
“They had a wonderful chamber meeting with us and a reception where they brought in their local businesses to raise funds to send the band. Each band had to pay their own way to come to the Rose Parade and that band, that community, that chamber of commerce all pulled together and raised the funds they needed. The reason they did that is because their motto is ‘Knightsville is a Nice Place to Live.’”
They went to a community in Westchester, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati.
“It was absolutely amazing to see what they can do…they have auto repair shops that give 10% to the band, they have restaurants the kids can go down to and work on a Saturday afternoon – all the tips they make at the restaurant and 10%of all the receipts they make that afternoon - will be donated to the band. The most amazing thing was that a local builder, who didn’t have a student who ever went to the local high school, and relatively new to the community donated a home they could raffle off so they could raise funds for the band. That band was able to raise $175,000. We went to Acadosio, Texas..
“You may remember that is where the space ship Columbia disintegrated,” Keedy said, somberly. “There was not a single property in the town of 30,000 that didn’t have some remnant of the space shuttle. They were in the news forever. Even though it was rather rural, they considered themselves to be an inner city school. There are students there that are economically challenged who would not be able to make this parade except for the retired community that set up scholarships for those students to enable them to come to the parade.”
Keedy mentioned a number of schools and universities that will be participating.
“Missouri State University has one of the best bands I have ever seen, in fact they led the parade when I was music chair. Just because they are a university they still have to raise their own funds. They were $40,000 short but were sure they could find it somehow. There was a gentleman who had never gone to college but loves Missouri State, loves football games, and loves the band. He called while we were visiting and told the band leader “you don’t have to look any further for that $40,000.”
South Dakota State.
“The town it is in is the 5th largest in the state,” Keedy said. “When the school is not in session it has 18,000 people; when the school is in session it has 30,000. He said,” A lot of the kids in the band have never been out of the state. They will march on New Year’s Day in front of a crowd of around 800,000 people, which is larger than the population of their whole state. They raised funds by selling raffle tickets: they each had to sell 10 at $100 per ticket to raise the $1000 of the $1800 they needed. Community support provided the other $800.”
One only has to listen to Keedy to get a sense of the tremendous economic impact the Tournament of Roses has had on the City and the surrounding areas.
He said, “The Tournament of Roses Association has a Foundation that gives out close to $100,000 annually. We have done this since 1983. We have funded over 120 different organizations in a total amount of $1.8 million in that time. We have also given in excess of $50,000 , approximately, every year to other charitable organizations and groups in this city to help support them and the events they put on. The Tournament of Roses has donated $75,000 to rebuild PCC’s field and we’ve just recently given $10.000 to USC to help their band on New Year’s Day. The Tournament of Roses pays the City of Pasadena $1.2 million each year for all city services and rent that we incur. In addition we contribute $28,000, each year for different projects, which is basically put into an escrow account until we have a large enough fund so that the City and the Tournament of Roses can settle on a program that needs a lot of funds. We have funded recently all new lighting at Singer Park – corner of Calif & Pasadena Aves. The last project we funded was the refurbishment of all the picnic facilities at Brookside Park: tables, benches, water, fountains, trash barrels, etc. We have also given $4.4 million to capital improvements at the Rose Bowl, $1.8 million of that was recently used for the new locker rooms.”
In addition to traveling around visiting bands, they also visited other festivals, something the Tournament does as a member of the International Festival and Events Association. “We visited Macon, Georgia, at their Cherry Blossom Festival. You have to visit that city to see how excited they get about a celebration and festival that is about 25 years old. They use pink instead of red…the whole town goes pink. It is amazing to see. They paint their business windows with cherry blossoms. The public paints windows of their cars with cherrry blossoms, the houses are adorned with pink ribbons and wreaths of pink flowers. I even saw a poodle dyed pink. All the funds they raise go to beautify Macon. It is great to see the total community support and pride that they have of their festival.
The Calgary Stampede:
“What a great event that is. They have a window painting contest with their businesses in downtown Calgary. They paint the windows according to their theme. They actually have a panel of judges in Calgary that goes around and whoever wins gets a plaque to hang in their business window for the year. It is amazing - the economic impact on the City of Calgary is $335 million according to their records. The fascinating thing, I think, is that it costs Alberta $10 million to put it on.”
He added, “We have started a new program this year – Parade of Roses. Many years ago I attended a tulip festival in Ottowa and I saw that they had these 5-foot tulips, painted by different artists, put on display in front of the City Hall and were auctioned off. The funds raised were used for community support and it had always been in the back of my mind what a great thing to do for the City of Pasadena, how well it fits in with the Tournament of Roses. So I started Roses on Parade. We unveiled our very first Rose Coronation this year and we are offering to community partners and businesses here in Pasadena the opportunity to sponsor a rose. To be painted by a local artist, they will be put on display at the Coronation this coming 2008 in front of Tournament of Roses House. After that they will be distributed around the City of Pasadena and people will be given maps so they can go see or visit the roses on display.
Funds raised will be funneled through the Tournament of Roses Foundation and will be used for art programs for the city. I have always felt that the Tournament of Roses and our floats are an American art form and this is an opportunity for us to improve the arts in Pasadena.”
Past Tournament of Roses Presidents were recognized by Podley and the 2008 Rose Queen and her Court were individually introduced.
Past presidents in attendance included Harriman Cronk, Gary Dorn, Don Fedde, Gary Hayward, Fred Johnson, Don Judson, Dick Ratliff, Ken Burrows, and Mike Ward.
Other dignitaries in attendance include County Supervisor Mike Antonovich; Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard; Carol Liu; Assemblyman Portantino; Teresa Lamb Simpson, representing Congressman Adam Schiff; City Manager Cynthia Kurtz; Pasadena Superintendant of Schools Edwin Diaz; incoming interim City Manager Bernard Melekian; incoming president of the Chamber Paul Little, Others were Scott Jenkins, Jim Boyle, Kathy Haney, Nat Read and Bill Thomson.
Businesses represented included the Corporate Center Pasadena, Professional Business Bank, Westin Pasadena, Convention & Visitors Bureau, San Gabriel Valley News , Pasadena highlands, GenRob, LLC, Church of Scientology, AT&T, Milestone Products, Acura of Glendale, Kaiser Permanente, Boyle, Olson & Robinson, Renta-CEO Inc. Citizens Business Bank, Rose Bowl Operating Company. Sares-Regis Group. Holmes Body Shop, Huntington Catering, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Union Station Foundation, CB Richard Ellis, El Portal Restaurant, Castle Green, American Cancer Society, Pasadena Wood Floors, Inc. Assured Home Health Care, Arthur Murray Dance, Read Communicatons , Regency Park Senior Living, AppleOne, Eye Care for Animals, Sit N Sleep, West Start Calstart, Pasadena City College, Alverno High School, Pasadena Education Foundation, Sm. Business Development Center, Women in Action, Hear Center, Sheraton Pasadena, Bolton & Company and Ventura Business Bank.