Nurse Leaders Wrap Up Pasadena Convention with Scholarships Awards from "Left Over" Rose Parade Float Funds

The Nurses Float Scholarship, created through a surfeit of Rose Parade-fired generosity, was one of several awarded by the Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL) during its 41st annual convention in Pasadena this week.

Nurses had gotten involved in the 2013 festivities thanks to the fact Sally Bixby became the first registered nurse, and second woman, to be Tournament of Rose president. The scholarship was born when Bare Root, the nonprofit raising funds for the float, ended up with a $150,000 surplus.

“We always said we wanted it to be used for scholarships and it has been,” said Paul Wafer, a nurse and ACNL’s philanthropy board chair. The scholarship is still being awarded by Bare Root through ACNL.

This year’s winner of the $5,000 Nurses Float Scholarship is Joy LeFranchi, a staff nurse at St. Jude Medical Center. Through good investment, Wafer said, the Nurses Float Scholarship Fund has just a little less money than it did at the its outset.

“It is our hope that the scholarship will eventually be endowed and keep on going,” Wafer stated.

The group granted six other scholarships to members including: an academic research scholarship to Loralie Woods; ACNL leadership scholarships to Courtnay Caufield, Surani Hayre-Kwan and Penny Morgan Overgaard.

The 1,400-member outfit advances nursing and health care generally, by developing nurse leaders and disseminating professional practices, and influencing health care policy.

It also awarded honoraria to members for their outstanding contributions to health care including: Linda Leavell (Kaiser Permanente); Heather Johnson (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center); Juli McGinnis (Kaiser Permanente); Anne Tanner (CHOC Children’s Services); June Rondinelli, (Kaiser Permanente); Stephanie Vaughn (Cal State-Fullerton); G. Aubrey Serfling and Martin Massiello, both of Eisenhower Health.