Can a Rose Parade float help heal a politically fractured nation?

When three majestic bald eagles soar 30-feet over Colorado Boulevard in the 137th Rose Parade on New Year’s Day, organizers hope they not only wow the crowd, but also begin to unify a fractured nation.

America250 — the bipartisan organization established by Congress in 2016 to plan the nation’s semiquincentennial — is entering a float in the 2026 parade.

It’s not the first time the U.S. government has had a hand in America’s favorite New Year’s Day tradition. But it is, perhaps, the first time the stakes have been this high.

As we turn the corner to 2026 – the 250th anniversary year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – we are a nation divided.

Debates over immigration, trade, gun laws, reproductive and healthcare rights and the environment, among others, expose the fractures, and the constant churn of for-and-against. All this in an American when congressional gridlock leads to debilitating government shutdowns.

But as a team of people at Fiesta Productions enters the dry decorating phase of the America250 float titled “Soaring Onward Together,” they and the people who commissioned the creation all have the same sentiment.

Maybe a fanciful representation of our nation’s birds – representing past, present and future – can begin to heal and kick off a semiquincentennial year, where Americans remember that patriotism is for everyone.

That’s the hope, at least, of Lynn Forney Young, who was appointed to the United States Semiquincentennial Commission in 2017. She’s one of eight private citizens who make up the 32-member panel that also includes U.S. senators and representatives.

America250 is a bipartisan, multi-year effort to celebrate the country’s semiquincentennial with online and in-person initiatives through July 4, 2026.

Entering a float in the Rose Parade, said Young, is a wonderful way to raise awareness worldwide on what America250 is all about and to tout our nation’s contributions.

And those three large eagles on its float, said Young in a phone interview, are asking Americans key questions:

“How do we reflect on our past? How do we change it in the present? How do we move forward for a better future?”

Young remembers how patriotic she felt during the nation’s bicentennial, 50 years ago, in 1976.

The Rockdale, Texas, resident said she recalls a divided nation in the mid-1970s. The Watergate scandal had not long before rocked the country. The Vietnam War had redefined the U.S.’s intervention in foreign countries.

Yet, she said, despite those divisions, she has grand memories of fantastic bicentennial fireworks, of people’s mailboxes all festooned in red, white and blue.

Her dream is that sort of abject patriotism happens again five decades later.

“My hope is that the semiquincentennial will have the same impact,” Young said. “That it will unite our nation.”

Young added how great it would be that, once again, everyone is proud to be an American.

Mark Leavens, president of Pasadena Tournament of Roses, said he shares Young’s sense of optimism when it comes to reigniting patriotism.

In 1976, Leavens was 15 and celebrated the bicentennial in Boston with his father’s family, watching the tall ship procession come into the harbor.

“It’s a lifelong memory for me,” Leavens said. “To think that 50 years later that America250 is part of the Rose Parade, that really hits home for me personally.”

Roxanne Hoge, chairman of the Republican party of Los Angeles County, also has lasting bicentennial memories.

Hoge was 11 years old and had just emigrated from Jamaica to Miami a few months before the Fourth of July celebration in 1976. When her family left Jamaica, said Hoge, that country was so divided that you didn’t go to an opposing party’s restaurant or retail store.

She came to America in the middle of the school year, she said, and her parents didn’t tell her or her sister until the night before they flew out.

“I remember my eyes being as big as saucers,” Hoge said of when the family landed in April, 1976, in the middle of the school year.

It was a fraught time, Hoge said. The U.S. economy was just recovering from a deep recession.

But, even though America was politically in a “time of malaise,” said Hoge, the 200th birthday celebration “was just like DisneyWorld.”

Hoge said her hope is the Rose Parade float and enduring America250 projects throughout 2026 will heal divisions.

“It’s kind of like the Olympics,” Hoge said. “Everybody should be really proud of participating in the American experiment.”

You’d have to have a heart of stone, Hoge added, to not find eagles soaring over our country a stirring sight.

“Our aim is to bring all areas of America, from sea to shining sea.” – Philip Rice, floral director

Young agreed. She said she wants the bicentennial patriotism that welled up to spill over to the semiquincentennial and for it to be long lasting.

The three eagles on the Rose Parade float will soar as a symbol of our nation, she said, where we can reflect on our past and create a unified future for our children.

The subtle patriotism of soaring eagles

The eagles will have 252 individual feathers, each of them fashioned from a combination of rice-sized as well as larger elements.

Each feather is composed of a couple of large red and black ti leaves, said Philip Rice, floral director. Set on top of those is a pod covered in a mixture of tiny cranberry leaves and niger seeds. The niger seeds have a shine to them, explained honorary Tournament of Roses Director Carole Curran, so it will make each feather glisten in the sun on New Year’s Day.

It’s all to emulate the natural brownish color of the eagle’s feathers, Rice said.

Curran is more invested in the America250 float than most. It was her idea.

The Monrovia resident and longtime tournament volunteer took the idea of a patriotic float to Young in 2017. At the time, the latter was the president general of the national society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

And, though DAR declined to participate in the Rose Parade, once Young was appointed to the semiquincentennial commission, Curran said: “She was just all in and a bag of chips.”

DAR will be involved, said Curran, when the eagles get to the floral decorating stage. DAR members will come from all across the country to help place flowers and other live materials beginning Dec. 26.

“We want the descendants of the American Revolution to own these eagles,” Curran said.

This week, the eagles are still in the dry decorating phase.

This meticulous ‘dry decorating,” said Rice, is what makes for a spectacular float. It’s standard practice for all creations of Fiesta Productions, the float builder.

But “Soaring Onward Together” is no ordinary float, according to Mike Abboud, president and chief creative officer.

“I don’t think we’ve been this excited about a float in a long time,” he said, gesturing toward the 30-foot tall structure.

That’s because the America250 float promises to mesmerize Rose Parade crowds with float animation not seen in several decades, said Abboud.

Each of our nation’s birds is perched atop a craggy mountain peak, poised to take flight.

Each eagle – independently animated –  will then appear to soar over the parade route in sync to Aron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” performed by John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

The three eagles, representing strength, freedom and courage – as well as past, present and future —  will fly over a diverse landscape of mountain peaks, flora and fauna and waterfalls.

“Our aim is to bring all areas of America,” said Rice, “from sea to shining sea.”

To that end, decorations on the float represent living things found from a wide range of regions: Protea and juniper from the Southwest. Wheat and barley from the Central Plains. Maple leaves from the Northeast.

The America250 float has been inspired, said Rice, by quintessential American ideals promoted in songs such as “America the Beautiful.”

But the execution of that is subtle, he said.

For example, the craggy peaks of the mountains are grey. But “purple mountain majesty” will be there in the crevices to cast dried sweet potato shadows. And, there will be no actual “amber waves of grain,” but there will be a nod to it, he added, saying “North America is full of natural wonders.”

“We felt this really represented our country,” agreed Abboud.

The floral approach is different, said Rice, as designers are creating this landscape as opposed to say – just perching the eagles above a bed of roses.

Lack of red, white and blue or an American flag

But for all its intended painterly beauty, there is a noticeable absence of red, white and blue on the America250 float. And, there’s no American flag depicted, though organizers are planning to distribute hand-held flags to parade bystanders.

The lack of an American flag was certainly not intentional, according to Young.

“We certainly did not say: ‘We do not want a flag,’” Young said of the process of approving a float design.

Of course, the American flag, said Young, is very important and a wonderful symbol of our country.

So much so, said Young, America250 is planning America Waves in 2026.

“We will send a flag to anyone who wants one,” Young said, “similar to the way people could get free COVID tests.”

When asked about some people’s reluctance to fly an American flag, Young answered, “it’s our nation’s symbol; it’s not a party issue.”

Hoge agreed.

“You don’t want the flag to be owned by one party,” Hoge said. “That’s insane.”

After all, Young said, flying the flag is not a Republican or a Democrat activity. “It’s just American,” she said.

The search for gravitas

Young said the commission interviewed each of the float designers – Fiesta, AES and Phoenix before selecting how they wanted America250 represented in float form.

“We’re very thrilled to have this opportunity,” Young said of participating in the Rose Parade, adding they settled on Fiesta’s design as it was very majestic and best depicted what the commission wanted.

Abboud and Rice, the float experts, said other designs presented to the America250 commission were overtly patriotic. Some were even comical, added Abboud.

But the “Soaring Onward Together” design of eagles and waterfalls, said Abbound, was much more subtle and really represented what this country is about.

“This float formed a natural, emotional reaction,” Rice said. “Anyone can invest in it.”

Leavens said he applauded Fiesta and America250’s decision to go with a more subtle approach as their eagle design.

“I can certainly understand why this particular float design certainly stood out from everything else they were looking at,” Leavens said.

This float design had a gravitas that others didn’t have, said Rice.

“And, no matter what area of the country you are from,” added Curran, “or even if you are watching from anywhere in the world, you’ll find something to resonate with.”

As America and the rest of the world watches on New Year’s Day, perhaps a 137-year floral tradition can be a spark of change for a divided country.

Afterall, said Curran, it’s diversity that gives our country strength. The America250 float is a testament to how people with different philosophies can all work together, she said.

“I think the fabric of our country is fragile sometimes, but it gets put back together again eventually.”

Lisa Jacobs is a correspondent for the Southern California News Group.