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Final Preparations Underway For 125th Rose Parade

PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — Volunteers Tuesday were prepping the finishing touches on floats for the 125th Tournament of Roses Parade.

Dole Food Company has been the sweepstakes winner the past three years and is one of the front runners again this year.

"We are bringing you a paradise for your eyes this time. Our theme is 'Sunrise at the Oasis' – it's an ideal world where you get desert that coexists with tropical rainforest,"said Monica Spiro of Dole's Marketing Services. "We got like 40,000 roses and a real live Mandarin tree that we are going to be donating to a local school."

The Lucy Pet Foundation will take part for the first time in the New Year's Day Rose Parade, which will be themed "Dreams Come True".

The group's float will feature multiple dogs catching Frisbees and doing tricks to promote spaying and neutering.

"It's to bring awareness to the fact that 80,000 dogs and cats a week are put to sleep because there are too many of them as a pet over-population. So we are all about spay and neuter and trying to stop the amount of dogs going into the shelter," the foundation's Joey Herrick said.

The annual parade will kick off at 8 a.m. New Year's Day in Pasadena and families were already lined up Tuesday to steak out the prime viewing spots.

"At noon you can set up your stuff on the sidewalk and kind of steak your claim, and then at midnight tonight, we get to move out to the blue line," said Amy Jahnke, who is 8 months pregnant and was with her husband, her 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. "I've probably done this 30 plus times...Hopefully they will keep coming with their families too."

After the parade, the 100th Rose Bowl Game will begin at 1:30 p.m. and will be a match-up between the Michigan State Spartans and the Stanford Cardinals.

The Pasadena Fire Department advised fans attending the game to drink plenty of water and electrolyte beverages to avoid becoming dehydrated from the above-average temperatures.

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