Gabby Giffords named grand marshal of 2023 Rose Parade

Gabby Giffords will serve as grand marshal of the 134th Rose Parade next year. The former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona will ride down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena on Jan. 2. Giffords will be part of the coin flip for the 109th Rose Bowl game later that day.

Giffords, 52, was shot in the head in January 2011 outside a Tucson, Arizona, grocery store during a public appearance. Because of the severe brain injury she suffered, she had to re-learn how to walk and talk. Giffords is a gun safety advocate who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this year.

Gabby Giffords, Activist-Former U.S. Rep said "Our lives can change so quickly. Mine did when I was shot, but I never gave up hope. I chose to make a new start, to move ahead, to not look back. I'm relearning so many things: How to walk, how to talk. And I'm fighting to make the country safer." 

The parade's theme of "Turning the Corner" represents the world emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and the sweeping turn the floats and bands make from Orange Grove Boulevard onto Colorado Boulevard as part of their 5 1/2-mile route.