New guest blog- Rice is nice for Tournament of Roses Float

My name is Paulina Trujillo, a second year Biomedical Engineering student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and this year’s Decoration Chair for the SLO team. I got hooked onto Rose Float after my first year as a volunteer. I was attracted to the inner workings of this program, especially the decorations department, because of the creative use of materials used to beautifully decorate the float.


Boy was I surprised to find all the hard work and dedication that goes into creating an award-winning float! All of the different types of materials, in addition to flowers, used to decorate a float also amazed me.


Our float this year will feature three superheroes saving the day, each having its own individual power. This float will adorned with several unique materials, including: wheat-based kitty litter, potatoes, an abundance fresh floral, seeds, beans, moving water, and two-hundred pounds of rice. You heard right - two hundred pounds of California rice! This rice will be used on our city hall building located in the middle of the float. It will also be featured in Cal Poly’s first ever murals!


These murals will depict a story of the superheroes working together to save the day. The rice will be used whole and also blended, and mixed with other materials to create the effect desired.

We thank the California rice farmers for this donation and contributing to our decorating efforts, and we look forward to working with them in the future! If you have any interest in our float and would like to help decorate please visit our website.

Be sure to watch our float drive down the parade route on January 2. See you there!

-Paulina Trujillo
Cal Poly Rose Float - SLO, Decoration Chair