Events - Nomuras participate in the Rose Parade

Posted by Walt Stephens 
on Jan 05, 2015
 
Rotary float 2015 Rose Parade
Roxanne Nomura from the Rotary Club of Carpinteria Morning brought in the New Year riding the Rotary float in the 126th annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. Roxanne was one of eight riders on the Rotary-sponsored float, with the theme “Changing Lives Through Clean Water.” Roxanne was selected based on her experience in working on drinking water projects with her husband Wade in Mexico.
 
“I had a life-changing experience in Mexico when I was doing a water project there with Wade," Roxanne said. "We were installing a water filtration system in Mexico, and needed tools and a ladder. I met an 11-year-old girl that lived in the village named Ericka who helped me find the tools we needed. I asked her if she was going to high school the following year, and she said that her family could not afford to send her because of the cost of the bus, uniforms, and books. The next year we saw her in town in a uniform going to school. She told me that because of the drinking water system, her family was no longer sick, they did not have to buy water, and she was now able to go to school.”
 
 
 
Pictured from left to right: Rotary International Vice President Ken Schuppert and his wife Lynn, Corinna and Rotary International President Gary Huang of Taiwan, and Roxanne and Wade Nomura. Wade serves on the Rotary Float committee on the Executive Committee, as the Rotary International liaison and a drinking water expert for The Rotary Foundation projects. To the right of Wade, representing District 5240 is Edwin Velarde from the Rotary Club of Westlake Village. The riders were dressed in international clothes and represented areas that benefit from these water projects, or sponsoring countries. Thousands of people around the world die each day due to a lack of safe drinking water.
 
Walt Stephens of the Rotary Club of Goleta Noontime will serve as the 2015-2016 Rotary Rose Parade Float Committee Chair. For more information on this event/story, contact  Walt Stephens.