Winning Float Sets Off Mini-Stampede for Santa Ana Pins : Reaping the Gold

The City of Santa Ana reaped more than honors when its “Architects of Freedom” Rose Parade float won the trophy Tuesday as the entry that best portrayed the “Spirit of America” parade theme.

The award also created a trading hysteria among pin collectors--similar to the frenzy of buying and swapping at the Olympic Games--for the limited-edition pins the city was selling for $4 each to help pay the $80,000 cost of the float.

“Once our float was named the theme winner from the 59 entries,” said city spokeswoman Anne Parsch, “we got a rush on the pins, and we’re still getting calls at City Hall from others who want to buy them.”

She said about 2,250 pins have been sold and about 250 are still available, “and we could probably get another 500 if the demand is still there.”

Rick Chapman of Azusa, who has a license to provide pins for the Rose Parade, said, “The word from pin collectors is that Santa Ana’s pin is going to be extremely popular, particularly because it won the theme award.”

He said that 96 different pins were made for the parade.

Santa Ana’s, which is red, white and blue with a gold eagle, “caused a lot of interest even before we were notified we had the winning theme entry,” Parsch said. The volunteers who helped prepare the float were among the biggest buyers, she said.

“We even had our city manager selling them to people while he walked around the floats.”

The city also sold $2 embroidered lapel roses, $4 inscribed sun visors and T-shirts with Santa Ana Rose Parade inscriptions for $6 each. In all, $10,000 was raised. The city’s hotel bed tax paid the rest.

An estimated 2,000 volunteers received the T-shirts free.

They were also invited to a wedding when Jacqueline Geier, 50, director of volunteers for the float, and Roy Lahti, 46, were married in formal ceremonies in front of the nearby Lutheran Laymen’s League float.

The Santa Ana float, one of the largest among the 59 entries, carried seven sets of twins who represented historical figures as well as the ethnic makeup of Santa Ana.

The twins, selected from public and parochial elementary schools, included Latinos, blacks, whites and Asians. They were picked on the basis of height, smile and maturity.

“After the parade we got a call from an advertising firm on the East Coast,” Parsch said, “that saw all the twins on television and was interested in one of the sets for an advertising campaign.”