Abilities Expo
FlexiciserEvents and Activities
MWCC at the Largest Mixer in Orange County
Name of Event: Orange County Largest Mixer VII
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 24th from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: OC Fairgrounds (Bldgs 10 & 12) - 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Website: Orange County's Largest Mixer VII
Tournament of Roses
On New Year’s Day, the Kiwanis were gracious to allow Alyson and Erika Bogen, MWA 2010, to ride on their float, which was entitled "Above The Rest". The float consisted of a multi–tiered tree house lifting more than a dozen youngsters "Above the Rest" as they enjoy the delights of the outdoors and all it has to offer — tree climbing, fishing, enjoying the relaxing pleasure of a classic wooden and tire swings, and butterfly watching. Activities all notably labeled Kids Only in a childishly scrawled sign near the front of the float, which is the Kiwanis 29th Rose Parade entry.
Our float won the Isabella Coleman Trophy! Coleman, who grew up in Pasadena, created the design and decorating techniques that float builders use today. Her creations thrilled crowds for nearly 60 years — and long after her death, she is still the most respected float designer ever. When she was 12, Isabella Coleman pitched in to help decorate flower-covered wagons for the Tournament of Roses, that was 1904. A few years later, a teenaged “Izzy” Coleman entered her own float in the parade and won second place in the “horse-drawn conveyance” category. From then on, Coleman was hooked. Over the next 50 years, she designed more than 250 award-winning Tournament of Roses floats. She was the first to glue flower petals onto her floats. She used tiny vials of liquid nutrients to keep flowers fresh. She also was a pioneer in devising the steel undercarriages of these things that allowed them to become really immense. "Her ideal float was low to the ground," he says, "so it looked literally as if it was floating.
Coleman wasn’t an engineer or a trained artist. But she had ideas. Every year, she’d draw more than a hundred sketches of possible new floats — perhaps a dragon theme inspired by a magazine ad, or a heavenly locale inspired by the shapes of clouds. Coleman would take her sketches to a commercial artist to create a polished rendering that she’d then pitch to a commercial sponsor. That was the business part of float design, although Coleman didn’t exactly run her workshop like a business. It was a labor of love. Profits were plowed into next year’s floats. "I don’t think it really ever occurred to her that it was a business," Bird says. "And her son told me that it wasn’t until the Depression when her husband lost his job — he was a banker in Pasadena — and so the family eked out a living because of her float work."
Isabella Coleman finally gave up float design in 1969. But it was hard. She admitted, “I keep getting new ideas.” Five years after she retired, the Tournament of Roses honored her by adding a new parade award: the Isabella Coleman Trophy for the best presentation of color and color harmony in flowers.
MWCC would like to add that our participation in this year's parade would not have been possible without the generous donation from Beaver Medical Group...our sincerest thanks to them!
Ms. Wheelchair California Pageant Dates
The 2010 Ms. Wheelchair California Pageant will take place in April 2010. The deadline to submit applications is February 28th, no extensions will be granted. Please request an application by January 31st, applications will not be mailed out after this date. Please contact Ruthee Goldkorn for information and an application.
Applications for the 2011 pageant can be requested beginning November 15, 2010.
Speaking Engagements
Ms. Wheelchair California is available for speaking engagements, master of ceremony events, parades, photo opportunities and other community events. All events will be considered, and if deemed appropriate and scheduling allows, the Ms. Wheelchair California Program will do its best to accommodate your request.