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Representatives of Shriners Children's in front of the 2023 Rose Parade Float, "Back in the Game"
For the 12th year in a row, Shriners Children’s participated in the iconic Rose Parade presented by Honda. Eight representatives, including several Patient Ambassadors, rode on the float during the 134th annual parade. The parade took place on January 2 in Pasadena, California, and drew in hundreds of thousands of viewers and spectators.
This year’s float, entitled Back in the Game, depicted our patients’ joy in overcoming challenges and realizing their dreams. To represent our patients’ determination to get Back in the Game, the float portrayed a young boy in a wheelchair playing basketball and a girl with a prosthetic leg on a putting green. More than 200 volunteers came together in support of Shriners Children’s to decorate the float.
Among the float riders were National Patient Ambassadors Katherine and Parker, two young athletes who, with Shriners Children’s help, overcame devastating injuries in car accidents and returned to playing competitive sports. They were joined by Kenneth Craven, the CEO of the Shriners International fraternity, his wife, Jennifer, and honored guests from Shriners International and Shriners Children’s.
For our patients, the medical journey is just that: a journey, not a destination. The journey may be filled with challenges, and each one overcome represents a milestone achieved and a corner turned.
Shriners Children’s strives to help patients meet their goals and offers them opportunities to try new things and play just as their peers do, through adaptive sports from wheelchair basketball camps to adaptive bicycling, rowing and more. In addition, Shriners Children’s Pediatric Orthotic and Prosthetic Services create custom prosthetics for kids to engage in all the activities they love, from recreational activities to creative endeavors.
Founded in 1922, Shriners Children's recently celebrated 100 years of providing hope and healing to children. With this year marking the beginning of the next 100 years of care, the 2023 Rose Parade float perfectly set the stage for the next century of bringing compassionate care to children around the world.
