Our Crowdfunding Groups
The Cal Poly Rose Float team is raising funds to help offset travel costs, purchase new equipment, and allow more students the opportunity to participate in this quintessential Learn by Doing experience. Each year, Cal Poly's Rose Float is seen by more than 50 million viewers who tune into the Rose Parade, and it showcases the talent of Cal Poly's amazing students. New Year's Day 2024 is fast approaching, so help make a difference and continue this long-standing Learn by Doing tradition by donating today!
“Our float is entirely designed and built by students. We are welding the float together. We are the ones communicating with flower farms and flower growers across California and the nation. It is our responsibility to take it from words and drawings on paper and make it into something in real life. It is that complete step-by-step A to Z kind of experience that makes this so special in Learn by Doing.”
— Quinn Akemon, fifth-year Plant Sciences major,
President for the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Rose Float team
This program is one of the longest consecutive running self-built entries in the parade, as well as the only "student self-built" float designed and constructed entirely by students year-round. They compete against professional float builders who manufacture entries for sponsors, many of them with development budgets approaching $1 million. The Cal Poly Rose Float is a student-built float entered in the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association’s Rose Parade. Since 1949, Cal Poly Rose Float has continuously designed, built, financed, and decorated the float entry in the annual Parade. Over the last 74 years, Cal Poly Rose Float has been awarded a total of 61 awards and trophies!
photo courtesy of Ali Harake
“We have more students who are interested and would like to be a part of the Rose Float Program than we can accommodate. Right now, we have the demand, we get the sign-ups, but we have to limit how many students can participate.”
— Josh D’Acquisto, Cal Poly staff coordinator for the Rose Float team
Learn more about the upcoming 2024 Rose Float!
Provide a meal for a student on a Rose Float Lab Day, which happens 18 times per year.
Cover the cost of the iconic, flame-retardant coveralls for a student on the Rose Float team.
Provide Lunch and Dinner for all students for one day of Decorations Week.
Cover the cost of one night at a hotel for the Rose Float team to stay in Pasadena for Decorations Week December 26th – January 1st.
Help cover the cost of construction materials for decorative elements on the float.
Help cover the cost of structural steel— a crucial part of float construction.
Cover the cost of a trip to Pasadena/Pomona. Students on the Cal Poly Rose Float team go down to Southern California over 20 times a year.
