by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

Over the years, Mount San Antonio Gardens resident Lee Goldstein has participated in the Rose Parade as a float decorator and a spectator. Come January 1 he will join the big show as part of a group of Rotary Club members from around the world who will be walking the famous 5-mile route in Pasadena.

“I think it’s all very exciting to participate in something this big,” said the longtime Rotary Club of Claremont member. “It’s just an honor for our club to be involved with it and so hopefully I will represent everybody well.”

Goldstein, 82, has had two stints with the Rotary Club of Claremont: from 1977 to 2007 and 2018 to now. He was part of the Rotary Club of Visalia in the intervening years. In the 1990s he was part of the Rotary Rose Parade Float Committee, helping manage and build floats for the annual January 1 parade.

Every year, Rotary districts select members from across the globe to walk in the parade. This time around, Claremont’s club from Rotary District 5300 finally got its shot.

“I believe that our Rotary district had a selection, sort of like a lottery, as to which Rotary Club would get to have somebody walk in the parade with the float … and Claremont Rotary won of the lottery,” Goldstein said. “The final decision was, I believe, that they would ask one of the long-term members to walk in the parade. And I’m probably the third longest tenured person that’s been affiliated with Claremont Rotary that’s currently in the club, and I think I’m probably the only one who walks that much who would be happy to walk in it. I walk a lot and so they decided that I could do it. I probably walk nearly 2,000 miles a year.”

Goldstein hasn’t done anything outside his daily walking routine to prep for the parade.

“I do my normal walks,” he said. “I now walk a 10th of a mile for every year I am old. So last Sunday [my family and I] did my birthday walk. My birthday was 12/12 and we did 8.2 miles through Claremont last Sunday. So, I think I’m prepped for this 5-mile walk.”

Goldstein will make the early morning pilgrimage to Pasadena ahead of the 8 a.m. Rose Parade January 1. Goldstein and 13 other Rotary International members will wear various outfits to go along with the float’s theme, “On The Road With Rotary!”

“I’m going to sort of look like a farmer,” he said. “I’m going to be wearing bib overalls and a plaid shirt and a straw hat.”

A rendering of Rotary’s float, described by the Rose Parade as a “lively farmyard fun and windmill whimsy,” is viewable at tournamentofroses.com/2025-second-sneak-peek.

Tickets to the 136th Rose Parade are $75 to $125 at tournamentofroses.com/event/tickets. Local broadcasts for the 8 a.m. parade include NBC Los Angeles channel 4, KTLA channel 5, ABC channel 7, and Univision channel 34. More information is at tournamentofroses.com.

The annual Rose Bowl game follows the parade, with the kickoff at 2 p.m. on ESPN. This year’s game, with top ranked Oregon versus sixth ranked Ohio State, is also the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal.