Boulé Granddaughter Is Queen at Pasadena 2012 Rose Parade

The Pasadena Tournament of Roses has selected high-school senior Drew Washington to be the Rose Queen for the 2012 Rose Parade. Queen Drew is the granddaughter of Archon Lou Underwood of Gamma Zeta Boulé in Pasadena, California. Crowned at age 16, Queen Drew is the youngest and only the third queen of African American descent to be so honored in the Parade’s 123-year history. The parade is viewed by millions of people worldwide.

The Pasadena Tournament of Roses is more than a group of people who put on a flowering parade once a year. It is one of the most politically powerful institutions within the Greater Pasadena area. It’s board of directors have major influence in both government and business institutions locally and nationally. In it’s 123-year history, it has never had a black executive director, nor has it had a black president. However, Archon Gerald Freney, a recent inductee of Gamma Zeta, is slated to be the first black president of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses before the end of this decade. Queen Drew’s grandfather, Archon Lou Underwood, is one of the few men of color to be a member of the Tournament of Roses Committee. The Tournament also runs the Rose Bowl Football Games, which has been going on for 78 years. The Tournament of Roses Parade is the most prestigious of all New Years Day Parades in the entire United States and most likely the world.

Queen Drew is a high school senior at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Canada, a community adjacent to Pasadena. Her high school was very supportive of her becoming part of the Rose Court. Queen Drew is captain of both the varsity volleyball and varsity track-and-field teams. Over a thousand young ladies applied to be on the Rose Court. The field was narrowed to 250, then to 34 and finally to seven. The announcement of the Queen was a major media event that took place in front of the Tournament House. Her school was so supportive that all 98 members of her class were released from school to turn out for the ceremony.

As Queen Drew is the lead ambassador of the Tournament of Roses, she and her court are making appearances all over the southland at Rotary clubs, hospitals, soup kitchens, and many other events and social projects. Drew says that one of the things she has learned since becoming queen was that so many different community organizations are in the greater Pasadena community and are helping out to change people’s lives for the better. As Rose Queen, she has been introduced to dozens of these organizations, which she was unaware of prior to becoming Queen. Drew has applied to 18 colleges and universities with Georgetown and New York University being at the top of her wish list. She says she wants to major in communications so she can get a job in front of the camera or making movie trailers, however, after visiting the various hospitals as Rose Queen and feeling the delight of the children on her arrival, she is thinking of becoming a doctor. Whatever her career choice turns out to be, we know that she will be successful.