Float Group Hopes to Raise $60,000

After falling far short of their fund-raising goal for the city’s 1991 Tournament of Roses Parade float, leaders of a Glendale group that solicits money for the annual entry said this week that they are planning a full-time fund-raising campaign.

Organizers of the nonprofit Glendale Rose Float Assn. on Tuesday showed the City Council a rendering of the 1992 entry--a huge, colorful, turn-of-the-century dirigible with nine costumed passengers--and said they hope to raise at least $60,000 toward its $90,000 cost.

Although the association in 1991 planned to raise $40,000 for a float that also cost $90,000, it collected only about $15,000, said Ruth Dodson, a member of the group’s board of directors. Organizers raised about $45,000 for the 1990 entry, Dodson said.

Under an agreement between the City Council and the association, the city each year budgets enough to cover the full cost of the Rose Parade float, but the fund-raising group contributes funds to offset that cost.

“We’re trying to become more long-range, because there’s going to be a point at which the city won’t be able to subsidize the float at all,” said Scott Schaffer, the association’s president.

Dodson and other directors blamed last year’s shortfall on a sluggish economy and heavy competition for donations among nonprofit groups. Although those conditions still exist, the directors said they expect to solicit more corporate donations, expand their dues-paying membership of 4,000 and begin fund raising for the 1993 float immediately after the 1992 parade.

The group usually begins planning events--such as golf and tennis tournaments, art shows, dinners and a gambling night--later in the year after spending the first several months recruiting designs and choosing an entry, Schaffer said.

The 1992 Tournament of Roses Parade, set for New Year’s Day, will feature 60 floats designed under the theme “Voyages of Discovery.” Glendale’s entry will be called “World Traveler.”