A rapidly growing
Orlando Citrus Parade tradition is the floats made entirely of Florida Citrus
fruit. This year’s parade will include five citrus floats, which took more
than 80,000 pieces of citrus to create. Volunteers spent several days creating
the masterpieces, attaching the oranges, grapefruits and tangerines to the
floats using rubber bands to create the visually stunning floats.
Following the parade, all fruit is carefully removed and donated to the Second
Harvest Food Bank.
More than 50
entries are expected, including the marching bands from Capital One Bowl
participating schools LSU and the University of Iowa. An athlete will
represent each school in the parade. Former Hawkeye and Kansas City Chiefs
great Ed Podolak will lead off for the University of Iowa band, while
All-American center Ben Wilkerson, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in
October, will represent the LSU Tigers. In addition, 14 high school
bands, impressive equestrian units, and magical entries from Orlando’s world
famous theme parks will participate in the two-hour extravaganza.
This year’s Grand
Marshal is Captain Winston Scott (USN, retired), Executive Director of the
Florida Space Authority. Captain Scott, a highly decorated naval aviator,
was selected to be an Astronaut for NASA in 1992. He flew on two space
shuttle missions, logging more than 24 days in space – including three space
walks totaling more than 19 hours. A distinguished officer with more than
30 years experience in aerospace, aviation and education, Captain Scott has
logged more than 5,000 hours of flying time in 20 different military and
civilian aircrafts and has made more than 200 shipboard landings.
This two-mile
long parade, themed “Greetings from Orlando” begins at the corner of Orange
Avenue and Robinson Street, proceeds south on Orange Avenue, turns left on
Anderson Street, takes another left on Rosalind Street, winds past Lake Eola and
finishes back at Robinson Street.
Curbside viewing
of the parade is free and it is recommended that spectators arrive early as more
than 80,000 parade fans are expected to line the parade route.
A
nationally syndicated television broadcast of the parade is scheduled to air in
more than 100 markets during the next four days. Please visit
www.fcsports.com for finalized national
airtimes. The addition of the New York and Los Angeles markets will
guarantee an event-record viewing audience for the parade.