-Submitted photo
Calhoun County area volunteers helped decorate floats for the 2023 Rose Parade in California, including (left to right) Loren and Sandy Wuebker, Paul and Marlene Armbrecht, Byron and Colleen Petzenhauser, and Dana and Michelle Dettman.

Anyone who has ever seen the pageantry of the New Year’s Rose Parade in person in California says the experience is so much richer than watching the parade on television.

“Stop and smell the roses” took on a whole new meaning recently for a group of Iowa volunteers, including farmers and other ag professionals from Calhoun County, who traveled to California in late December to help decorate parade floats and volunteer at a nonprofit organization in the greater Los Angeles area.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Sandy Wuebker of Rockwell City, who joined her husband, Loren, along with 25 other volunteers from Calhoun County and other parts of Iowa. “All these volunteers are ordinary people, but we all felt called to be part of this ministry.”

The Iowans flew to California on Dec. 28 and gathered with many other volunteers to help decorate Rose Parade floats in a large warehouse facility in Irwindale, California, just east of Pasadena.

For several days, various volunteers worked eight-hour shifts to complete the floats, including the Lutheran Hour Ministries float.

-Submitted photo
The hours the Petal Pushers volunteered to decorate floats helped pay for the cost of the Lutheran Hour Ministries float, which was one of the smaller floats in the parade. The 134th Tournament of Roses Parade honored the Lutheran Hour Ministries float with the Director’s Award, which recognizes most outstanding artistic design and use of floral and non-floral materials.

For Dr. Paul Armbrecht and his wife, Marlene, of Twin Lakes, this was their second time volunteering in California through Individual Outreach With Adults And Youth (IOWAY), coordinated by the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) Iowa District West.

“We went for the first time in 2014 and were excited to go back this year,” Marlene Armbrecht said. “This is a wonderful experience that gives us a unique opportunity to witness about Jesus.”

Iowans stand out for their work ethic

IOWAY reflects Lutheran church leaders’ goal to have a mission presence outside of western Iowa.

“Some Lutheran pastors in Iowa knew Lutheran pastors in the Pacific District,” said Lynn Menz, whose wife, Ellie, has coordinated IOWAY for years.

-Submitted photo
Byron Petzenhauser, of Twin Lakes, displays one of the pallets of pink roses that was used to decorate a float for the Rose Bowl parade.

“This led to connections with the Petal Pushers, a group of volunteers who helped decorate

floats for the Rose Parade.”

IOWAY coordinated their first trip for Rose Parade volunteers in 2003 and has offered this opportunity each year for the past 20 years.

“Companies start building the parade floats in February,” Menz explained.

“Volunteers start arriving in December to decorate the floats. Every surface on each of

these floats must be covered with something that’s alive, like fresh flowers, or something

that was alive, like seeds and nuts.”

Some volunteers unwrap flowers and trim stems and leaves. Others deliver boxes

of the prepared flowers and other materials to the volunteers decorating the floats. No

special training is required.

“The roses are very fragrant,” noted Colleen Petzenhauser of Twin Lakes, who

joined the Petal Pushers this year, along with her husband, Byron. “Depending on the

design, the floats were covered with chrysanthemums, carnations, anthurium flowers

imported from Africa that cost $10 each, grapefruits, limes, pineapple, potatoes, onions

and more.”

The Petal Pushers helped decorate a variety of floats, including the Mutual of Omaha float, which cost roughly $1.4 million to build, according to some estimates.

“There were 17 floats in the building where we worked, and the Petal Pushers decorated

five of them,” Wuebker said.

The hours the Petal Pushers volunteered to decorate floats helped pay for the cost

of the Lutheran Hour Ministries’ float, which was one of the smaller floats in the parade.

“Volunteers from Iowa are always in demand out here,” said Paul Armbrecht, a

veterinarian who serves Iowa pork producers. “Iowans are known for their work ethic and

their ability to find practical solutions to make things work better.”

The Iowa volunteers agreed that watching the floats glide down the 5.5-mile

parade route on Colorado Boulevard was breathtaking.

“I teared up when the Lutheran Hour float went by and played the song, ‘I Can Only Imagine’ about heaven,” Colleen Petzenhauser said. “We all felt such a sense of pride, knowing we played a small part in this.”

The 134th Tournament of Roses Parade honored the Lutheran Hour Ministries float with the Director’s Award, which recognizes most outstanding artistic design and use of floral and non-floral materials. Those materials were used to create intricate, stained-glass church windows, lambs on the front of the float, and praying hands along the sides of the float.

The Petal Pushers, all clad in their bright orange Petal Pushers sweatshirts at the

parade, cheered when the Lutheran Hour float came down the street.

“Everyone around us knew what we were cheering for,” Wuebker said.

Serving God by serving others

During their trip to California, the Iowans toured the Battleship USS Iowa Museum and also spent a day volunteering at the nonprofit LOT318 in Placentia, a community in the greater Los Angeles area.

“LOT318 ministers to at-risk youth and their community through after-school homework clubs and other activities,” Petzenhauser said. “They help kids see their worth and purpose in this world.”

LOT318 stands for “Loving Others in Truth,” inspired by the Bible verse 1 John 3:18.

LOT318’s founder, Letty Gail, started working with disadvantaged youth about a decade ago in a gang-infested neighborhood.

“It was so bad back then that delivery trucks wouldn’t even enter here without a police escort,” said Loren Wuebker, who helped assemble office chairs for LOT318.

“As Letty and her team kept serving the community, things improved to the point where the police started asking why they weren’t being called to this area so much.”

The Petal Pushers were especially inspired by the story of a young man who was well on his way to becoming a gang member but decided to become a police officer instead, thanks to the influence of LOT318.

“Our work in California reminded us you can’t fix everything that’s wrong in the world,” said Loren Wuebker, “but you can do what you can to make things better.”