The UPS Store® returns to the iconic Rose Parade® presented by Honda on January 1, 2025, in Pasadena, California.
The UPS Store 2025 float “Helping Dreams Take Flight” features a mother pterodactyl proudly watching her two offspring soar to the sky for the first time. The float illustrates how The UPS Store supports the dreams of small business owners, our franchisees, and school-aged youth through the Start Small, Grow Big Program with Junior Achievement USA®.
The Start Small, Grow Big Program launched in 2022 and has surpassed $6 million in customer donations across The UPS Store network of 5,300+ locations, striving to educate students through programming in areas such as career readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy.
Read more about our 2025 float concept here.
A Look Back at The UPS Store Floats
These floats wouldn’t be possible without the help of passionate volunteers who invested hundreds of hours gluing and placing every flower, seed, and leaf into place. The UPS Store is honored to have been continuously awarded recognition for our float entries.
- 2024 float titled Beat of Achievement, recipient of the Bob Hope Humor Award, featured a 35-foot-tall, musical crocodile surrounded by a posse of flamingos and tropical birds cheering him on.
- 2022 float titled Rise, Shine & Read!, recipient of the Sweepstakes Award, featured a colorful rooster standing on a stack of books, reading to his chicks.
- 2020 float titled Stories Change Our World, recipient of the Sweepstakes Award, featured a community of Tamarin monkeys, toucans, lizards, and sun conures in a majestic tropical rainforest.
- 2019 float titled Books Keep Us on Our Toes, recipient of the Sweepstakes Award, featured a ballerina-aspiring ostrich inspired by the famous story of Swan Lake.
- 2018 float titled Books Bring Dreams to Life, recipient of the Extraordinaire Award, featured an animated sea monster that “swam” down the parade route.
- 2017 float titled Books Bring Us Together, recipient of the Isabella Coleman Award, featured a 42-foot giraffe reading books alongside animal friends and the U.S. Marine Corps teddy bear.
2024 float titled Beat of Achievement 2022 float titled Rise, Shine & Read!
2020 float titled Stories Change Our World 2019 float titled Books Keep Us on Our Toes
2018 float titled Books Bring Dreams to Life 2017 float titled Books Bring Us Together