The Rose Parade is an iconic New Year’s Day tradition in Pasadena, as decorative floats and marching bands dazzle those who watch in person or through their TVs.
But for the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities that were devastated by the Los Angeles wildfires in January, the 137th Rose Parade will be even more meaningful, as there will be a dedicated float made in honor of the thousands who were impacted.
Named “Rising Together,” the 55-foot float will feature a large phoenix rising from floral elements, California native plants, imagery of the San Gabriel Mountains near Altadena, the coastal waves by the Pacific Palisades and 31 sunflowers as a tribute to those who died in the fires.
The float is sponsored by the California Community Foundation (CCF) and the Black Freedom Fund (BFF). Four survivors of the wildfires will be riding on the New Year’s Day float: Andrew King, Myra Burg, Gina Clayton Johnson and Jacque Robinson-Baisley.
King, whose Altadena home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, spoke with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. He spent the last 20 years working in public education, most recently as the principal of Alliance Dr. Olga Mohan High School in LA. But after the fires, he left his position in April to dedicate his time to helping other survivors.
He joined the Department of Angels, a nonprofit founded after the wildfires, with the mission of ensuring the impacted communities are able to recover with the resources and support they need. As the head of community engagement and education, King was in charge of a community survey to assess the needs of survivors and took a group of residents from the Pacific Palisades and Altadena to meet with members of Congress to help them understand their plight.
Although he recalled seeing an article that a float honoring survivors of the wildfires was going to be made, King wasn’t sure it would come to fruition, given that organizers for the Rose Parade typically start drafting designs around a year in advance.
That was until two weeks ago, when he received a call from CCF, saying he was selected to be part of the parade not only because he was a survivor himself, but for the work he did to support his community.
“I’m just honored to be selected because I know there are so many people in the community who have given back so much,” King said, “and I’m very appreciative that I’ve been selected in recognition of some of the work that I’ve done for my neighbors.”
He added that while there is a sense of appreciation for being included in the Rose Parade and that the float means so much to the victims, there’s still a lot of sadness and tragedy within the community.
“The reason why this float is so important is that people just assume that a year in, we’re fine,” King said. “We might be smiling, we might be at dinner parties, … but the truth is there’s pain behind those eyes, and there are people that still continue to suffer. … I want to call everyone’s attention to the fact that the recovery is not over, and that we still need quite a bit of help.”
Running on Hope
Like for so many wildfire victims, this year has been hard for King and his family. He recalled that after they had been evacuated, he received an alert around 5:30 in the morning that there was a fire in his home. About an hour later, they had to accept the fact that their house was likely already gone.
Around 4 p.m. that afternoon, King was signing a lease for an apartment in Pasadena without ever having seen it – something he knew was risky.
“Fortunately, we have a nice place right now, but it could have been a scam,” King said. “We wouldn’t have known, but we took it because we needed a place to live. My kids needed a bed to lie their heads [at night].”
While King was fortunate in that regard, he still feels an immense amount of stress. He’s spent much of his time working on insurance claims and trying to get their home rebuilt, saying it’s like he’s “drowning in paperwork trying to get his family back home.”
The anxiety King feels over not knowing what the next month will bring has caused him to lose sleep, and he laments the time he’s spent trying to navigate through all this could’ve been used to be with his children.
“I think at the end of the day, the other thing that really keeps me up at night is I’m also just worried about my neighbors,” King said. “I want everyone to come home. I want people to be made whole, but I do know that there are those who are running out of their living assistance, those who might go homeless, or those who are skipping meals.”
But getting back home has proven to be extremely difficult. King said that there’s an expectation that homeowners have to decide quickly if they want to move forward with rebuilding, even if they don’t have the money on hand to do so.
Despite it being almost a year since the wildfires, King still doesn’t know how much his insurance is going to pay out. Regardless, he and his family decided to take the gamble of going forward with rebuilding and are crossing their fingers that they’ll have the money.
Adding to that uncertainty is the complexity of the permit system. King, like many homeowners, has no actual experience in designing a house, so having to go through tons of documents and using a technical language he’s never been exposed to before has been overwhelming, especially as any mistake that results from the countless decisions he has to make could delay the project from a week to a whole month.
And if that wasn’t enough, he added that although they should be receiving help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA), their programs have been complex and confusing to navigate through, and that the information they provide is contradictory.
“I’m a year in, and I’m running on hope,” King said. “I’m running on the fact that I know my neighbors are coming back, and my kids deserve to go back home. But I have nightmares about not having enough money … and [that] a decision I made has failed my family, and we won’t be able to go back to the home that we wanted.”
Through it all, though, King remains optimistic. At least once a week, he drives to the lot where his house stood. Before, the area would be completely silent; now, it’s filled with the sound of construction crews – a sign that rebuilding efforts are underway.
In a small silver lining, King said he’s become much closer with his neighbors through their shared experience and that he’s more of an “Altadenan” than he was before the fire.
“There is just an understanding that if you’re from Altadena, you’re family, … whether it’s the folks I’ve met standing in the Red Cross line, or the folks I’ve met at the grocery store as we wait for one of the giveaways. I really appreciated getting to know people that I might not have otherwise known, and that really has been a blessing.”
You can watch the 137th Rose Parade on New Year’s Day via major TV networks or live-stream it through one of eight platforms: Christmas Plus, Dooya, FanDuel Sports Network, Fubo, GFam+, Great American Pure Flix, Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus. The parade begins at 8 a.m.