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Collector's pin

The theme of the 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade was Inspiring Stories. Our float was titled Always Remember

Our 2015 float depicted the Tomb of the Unknowns monument at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
For over 80 years Odd Fellows have conducted a Pilgrimage to the Tomb of the Unknowns during which we lay a wreath.

On January 1, 2015 the Odd Fellows Rebekahs Tournament of Roses Parade float, Always Remember, which paid homage to the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, received the prestigious Tournament Volunteers' Trophy for the best floral design of parade theme under 35' in length. Walking alongside the float throughout its 5.5 mile journey while carrying wreaths were Tim Brown, Grand Master of the jurisdiction of California, Debbie Shuler, President of the Rebekah Assembly of California, Lady Ernestine Olson representing the Ladies Auxiliary Patriarch Militant (LAPM) and Captain Melvin Astrahan representing the Patriarch's Militant (PM). Among those riding the float are Gerald Poarch (showcasing the PM Grand Decoration of Chivalry), Liz Greenwood (Navy), Sarah Delaney (Air Force), William Lofthouse (Army), Clarence Alvarez (USMC), Daniel Martin (Coast Guard), Lloyd Johnson and Jonathan Andrade (wounded veterans organizations) and guarding the rear of the float, reprising their actual duties from 1989 to 1992, are retired Old Guard tomb sentinels Jeffrey Spangler and Stephen Shodeen. Follow this link to watch all the 2015 telecasts as shown on ABC, HGTV & KTLA.




Artist's Concept
Float Public Relations Impact

On January 1st, 2015, the number of Google searches for "Odd Fellows" (plotted in blue), "Rebekahs" (plotted in yellow) and "Odd Fellows Rebekahs" (the actual name as seen on our float, plotted in red) ran about 5X to 9X the typical number of daily searches for those terms. The graph below plots the number of daily searches relative to the maximum number of daily searches covering the months of December 2014 and January 2015. The maximum number of daily searches occurred on January 1st and has been normalized to a value of 100%. These searches originated from all across the USA.

Google searches for "Odd Fellows" clearly dominate the data and were fairly consistent throughout the year with a notable spike on January 1st. Searches for the term "Odd Fellows Rebekahs", the actual name that appears on our float, were almost non existent throughout the year except for a January 1st spike registering at about 40% of the number of searches for "Odd Fellows". Searches for "Odd Fellows Rebekahs" can only be explained by people who saw the float.