Perkins County corn featured in Rose Parade

    The Tournament of Roses is a tradition that millions come together to enjoy every year with the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade making their way onto televisions across the world on New Year’s Day.
    This year, Pasadena, California resident, Marla Borowski, formerly of Perkins County, completed her 19th parade as a volunteer for the Tournament of Roses Association.
    This association is made up of 935 volunteers who put in more than 80,000 hours of manpower to make the Tournament of Roses possible.
    When asked about her years of service, Borowski explained  how the Tournament of Roses Association was recommended to her as a great way to give back to the community and she’s been a part of it ever since.
    This year, the 129th Rose Parade had another special tie to Perkins County, thanks to Borowski.
    As part of the association that puts on the parade, Borowski was alerted early that Ag PhD TV & Radio would be one of 18 commercial floats in this year’s parade with their “Salute to Farmers” themed float.
    Having an ag background, she knew the name and immediately got on their website to discover Ag PhD was seeking seeds from all 50 states and thousands of farms across the country to help them decorate their float.
    Borowski explains, “as a 19-year Tournament of Roses volunteer, with Nebraska farming roots, I wanted to be a part of that!”
    Borowski then contacted Ashley Colglazier, who farms the land Borowski owns south of Brandon, one mile north of the Chase County line. She and brother Tyler Hughes and the team at H&R Farms were on board and happy to help.
    “They farm the land, so they did all the work of planning, planting, nurturing and harvesting the corn,” said Borowski.
    “It was my responsibility,”  Colglazier explained. After driving the harvest truck that day she filled a bag with corn and later hand-picked and cleaned a half pound of seed that she then mailed to Borowski in Pasadena.
    Never having volunteered to decorate a float before, Borowski contacted Artistic Entertainment Services, the company building the float for Ag PhD, to ask if she could hand-deliver her seed and help decorate the float, to which they agreed.
    The corn from Perkins County was glued to stars that were used in floral arrangements around the perimeter of the float.

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