Emmy Award-winning KTLA sportscaster Derrin Horton has been named Theme Grand Marshal and Miss California Bree Morse has been named Celebrity Grand Marshal of the 58th annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival parade on Saturday, May 28.
Emmy Award-winning KTLA sportscaster Derrin Horton has been named Theme Grand Marshal and Miss California Bree Morse has been named Celebrity Grand Marshal of the 58th annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival parade on Saturday, May 28.
The four-day festival will be held Memorial Day Weekend Friday, May 27 through Monday, May 30. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Our Local Sports Heroes,” and in support of the theme, five Olympic gold medalists will be in the parade along with the top boy and girl athletes from each of the seven Garden Grove high schools. Olympians are Shirley Babashoff, Dr. Sammy Lee, Bruce Furniss, Cliff Meidl and Dr. Lance Larson.
Miss California Bree Morse is the 91st Miss California. Morse is a 23-year-old Garden Grove native. She is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing. Last September, she competed for the title of Miss America, and although she did not come home with the crown, she was a beautiful representative of the state.
She continues to be an advocate for her platform, “Alopecia Areata Advocacy,” Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and an ambassador for a number of the organization’s sponsors. Due to her own experience with alopecia areata, she speaks on behalf of those living with silent diseases, and many struggling to accept their physical differences.
Morse is a certified substitute teacher in Southern California. With the scholarship she earned, she plans to obtain a credential in English.
Derrin Horton Is a sportscaster for KTLA-TV. For the past 22 years, Horton has hosted, anchored, reported and called play by play for some of the largest sports networks in America. Since 2004, Horton reported from the sidelines and has hosted shows for many NFL Network productions. He spent the previous five years at KCAL-TV in Los Angeles anchoring “Sports Central,” and was the main feature reporter for Channel 9’s coverage of Los Angeles Lakers basketball. While at KCAL, Horton won an Emmy for his coverage of the Special Olympics. He holds a dual degree in broadcast journalism and political philosophy from Syracuse University. During college, he interned and worked at CBS Sports, WFAN Radio, WCBS-TV, WTVH-TV and WSTM-TV. In 1998, Horton joined Fox Sports Net as a sideline reporter on the Conference USA package, then as a college football and basketball announcer for ESPN. He’s also called games for ABC Sports, NFL Network and Fox Sports Net’s coverage of NFL Europe, and for CBS Sports.
An athlete himself, he has even competed against professional athletes in the Spike TV reality show “Pros vs. Joes,” where he finished second in the competition, losing in overtime.
Dr. Sammy Lee, 96 years old, is the first American of Asian descent to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States. The diver, just 5-feet tall, had to overcome much discrimination. He received his MD at the USC medical school in 1947, becoming an ear, nose and throat specialist. While in school, Lee squeezed in diving practice, but was only allowed at the Los Angeles Swim Stadium and Brookside pool one day a week, then the pool was emptied and replenished with fresh water the next day. In 1942, at the age of 22, Lee competed in the National Diving Championships and become the first non-Caucasian to win. In 1948 he won his first Olympic gold medal in the IOM platform and a bronze medal in the 3M springboard. In the 1952 Olympic Games, Lee won his second gold medal in the IOM platform. At 32, he was the oldest person to win a gold medal in diving, and the first male diver to win back-to-back diving gold medals. He later coached Bob Webster to two gold medals and Greg Louganis to a silver medal. He is the only Asian-American to have won the James E. Sullivan award as the U.S. outstanding amateur athlete.
Shirley Babashoff was the most successful female U.S. Olympian prior to the 1990s, with a total of eight Olympic medals. She is recognized as one of the greatest freestyle swimmers of all time. Babashoff set six world records in individual events and shared in an additional five in relays. She also set 37 U.S. records (17 individual and 20 relay), and at one time held the U.S. freestyle record at every distance from 100-meter to 800-meter. She has garnered twenty-seven AAU titles in addition to taking the 200-meter and 400-meter individual gold medals at the 1975 World Championships. At the 1976 Olympic Trials she won every freestyle event and the 400-meter individual medley. She set three U.S. records in the heats and three more in the finals, and broke the world record in the 800-meter freestyle. This ranks among the greatest swimming feats of all time. In 2005, Babashoff received the Olympic Order, the highest award of the Olympic Movement.
Cliff Meidl was the 2000 USA Olympian Flagbearer. When this kayaker led his U.S. Olympian teammates onto the field, many of the 2 billion viewers learned of his courageous rehabilitation from a tragic 1986 construction accident. Meidl had jackhammered into a buried power line that sent 30,000 volts of electricity through him. He suffered three cardiac arrest episodes and was "gone" for more than two minutes before being revived. He endured 15 surgeries and spent more than three years on crutches. The accident nearly forced the amputation of his legs; however, they were saved due to an innovative surgical procedure. At first, he turned to canoeing and kayaking for therapeutic value then pursued an aggressive weightlifting and conditioning regimen. In 1995, Meidl won gold, silver and bronze medals in kayaking events at the U.S. Olympic Festival in Denver. He made two U.S. Olympic teams, a feat that only 15 percent of all Olympians accomplish. Today, an active financial analyst, he enjoys sharing his inspirational story with diverse audiences across the U.S.
Swimmer Bruce Furniss broke 10 World and 19 American records, and won 11 AAU and six NCAA Titles over a 17 year period, in spite of waging a personal battle against the crippling arthritic disease, ankylosing spondylitis, an affliction he had since age 16. As a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic swimming team, Furniss won two gold medals in the 200-meter freestyle, one of only three Americans to ever win this Olympic event, as well as the 4 X 200-meter freestyle relay, setting world records in each event. Furniss also garnered two gold and two silver medals in World Championship competitions in 1975 and 1978. In 2004, he was recipient of the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award. Furniss became the 12th of only 14 Americans to break the 200-meter freestyle world record, which he accomplished four different times. He held the 200-meter freestyle world record from 1975 to 1979. His 1976 Olympic gold medal victory would outlast seven Olympic Quadrennials before being equaled in 2008 by Michael Phelps. Furniss was twice named World Swimmer of the Year. He is a founding board member of Swim with Phelps, a non-profit organization which provides college scholarships to physically challenged athletes.
Lance Larson competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, where he received a gold medal for swimming the butterfly leg of the men's 4 X 100-meter medley relay for the winning U.S. team. The U.S. relay team set a new world record of 4:05.4. Individually, Larson also received a silver medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle at the 1960 Olympics. Initially, John Devitt of Australia was listed as the winner of the men's 100-meter freestyle race; however, both Larson and Devitt finished with identical time of 55.2 seconds. Results were decided by finish judges who relied on their eyes and did not use replays. The official results placed Devitt first and Larson second. The United States team appealed, bolstered by videotaped footage of the finish that appeared to show Larson the winner. The controversy would pave the way for electronic touchpads to be included in swimming events to determine finish and accurate timing. Larson went on to break the 100-meter butterfly world record twice in 1960: first, setting the new record of 59 seconds on June 29, 1960; and again, a new record of 58.7 seconds on July 24, 1960.
The four-day charity event, the second largest city festival in the Western United States, drew 300,000 last year. Highlights include the Friday evening official giant strawberry cake-cutting ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Showmobile (Acacia and Main streets) when free strawberry shortcake is served to more than 2,000 people. On Saturday morning, there will be a City of Garden Grove sister-city 5K Run and a festival VIP celebrity breakfast at the Garden Grove Community Center, with proceeds going to Casa Garcia’s We Give Thanks.
This is followed by a parade that starts at 10 a.m. with celebrities, floats, bands, equestrians, athletes and characters. All four festival days will feature 35 carnival rides, four contests, more than 200 food and shopping booths, games, music and live entertainment.
Contests, held in the amphitheater, include the Berry, Berry Beautiful Baby Contest, Redhead Roundup, Strawberry Idol Karaoke and Tiny Tots King and Queen.
Sponsorship support this year comes from Southern California Ford Dealers, McDonalds, Sam’s Club, Great Destinations, Brandywine Homes, Parenting OC, El Panamericano, Korea Times, Nguoi Viet Daily News, OC News and its community newspapers, OC Weekly, Farandula USA, Miniondas, and radio stations 103.4 MYfm, KOST, JACK FM, KDAY-FM, KWVE, KWIZ, KABC, KLOS, Air 1 Radio, KSWD the Sound LA, KLYY, KSSE, Radio Centro 94.7 The Wave and KEARTH 101.
For more information, call 714-638-0981 or visit www.strawberryfestival.org.
