A company founded in Hawaii in 1851 will enter a float in the 122nd annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., for the first time in its history.

Dole Food Co. Inc. relocated its headquarters to California from Hawaii in 1991, but it will make sure Hawaii-grown pineapples are aboard its first-ever Rose Parade float, said Marty Ordman, vice president of marketing and communications. Dole also grows coffee and cacao in Hawaii, but the only certain parade appearance will be made by its pineapples, he said.

The company had entertained the idea of creating a parade float numerous times over the years, but this is the first time it’s taken the floral plunge. "We’re very excited to be participating this year and hope to continue," he said.

Dole is reintroducing a line of fruit packaged in 100 percent fruit juice, as opposed to syrup, refined sugars or artificial sweeteners, "so it seemed to make sense to draw attention to those products." As part of the relaunch, it is conducting a national sweepstakes titled "Living Well in Paradise" and will award a four-day trip to Los Angeles from Dec. 30 to Jan. 2 with VIP parade seating on Colorado Boulevard. The sweepstakes entry can be completed online via the Dole Facebook page.

Given the product line, the contest "and our ties to Hawaii … all the stars were aligned, and we decided, from a marketing standpoint, it would be a great event to participate in," Ordman said.

The float will feature an outrigger canoe, five waterfalls, monkeys (because everybody knows monkeys are a native species) and colorful birds, as well as hula and Polynesian fire-knife dancers. The people on the float are likely to have ties to the company and/or Hawaii but will probably be from Southern California.

SHOPPING SAFELY

Seventy-six percent of us plan to use credit and/or debit cards for our holiday shopping this year, according to an annual AAA Hawaii survey conducted Oct. 4-19.

Everybody thinks it can’t happen to them, but everybody also should know that is fallacious thinking given that it — in this case, identity theft — happened to 11 million Americans last year. Nearly 4 in 10 of the 250 surveyed shoppers have little to no concern about identity fraud. Also, consumers are generally more wary of identity theft via online shopping, although identities are more often stolen at physical retail locations, according to FBI statistics.

"Depending on the type of card they use and their bank’s liability policy for that card, an ID theft could ruin the holidays for many consumers," said Diane Peterson, AAA Hawaii regional manager. She encourages shoppers to find out from their card issuers what their personal liability is in the event of identity theft.

AAA offers members free credit monitoring called CreditCheck Select, which alerts members to changes in their credit report with Experian and offers support for fraud resolution. It also offers a premium service for $6.95 a month. A basic AAA annual membership is $77 for a new member.

Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Advertiser. Reach her by e-mail at erika@staradvertiser.com.