The Queen of Winterfest

It’s hard to believe that youthful-looking Lisa Scott-Founds has been leading Winterfest for nearly three decades, but her history with Fort Lauderdale’s famed boat parade goes back even further.

“I saw the very first boat parade because my mom was a waitress at Pier Sixty-Six, found out about it, and shared it with our family,” Scott-Founds says. “It was an annual thing for us that I would take a little blanket and make my ham sandwiches and egg sandwiches and get the family together.”

These days, Lisa and her husband David have been married for 25 years, and the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade has earned the title “The World’s Most Watched Boat Parade.” With over a million cheering spectators, the parade has become not only the largest one-day live audience of any event in Florida, but also the seventh largest one-day spectator event in the country.

It’s all led by a CEO and president who grew up in Rio Vista and became popular by hosting pool parties back in the day when kids weren’t always on their cell phones.

After graduating from Florida State University, the first thing she wanted to do was volunteer for Winterfest because it gave her such happy memories as a child. She was running a canvas business and became a volunteer due to her membership in the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce. After several different jobs, she talked her way into becoming the advertising director of the chamber despite missing the deadline for the job interview.

Scott-Founds was so good at selling memberships that they moved her into a position doing just that.

The offer to do sales made her feel pigeon-holed. But guess what? Her new office was right next door to Winterfest. “Sometimes it is the path unplanned that brings you to the perfect career path,” is Scott-Founds’ attitude.

Winterfest’s position for director of PR opened. She got the job. A year later, the position to become executive director opened and just before the cutoff time at midnight, she called Winterfest’s chairman to announce her interest. She got the job and her title was later changed to president and CEO.

Changing the parade route

One of her first major challenges came after the Blackstone Group bought Bahia Mar, Pier Sixty-Six, and the Marriott.

“We received a phone call that they would not be able to host our Grand Marshal reception nor our VIP area,” she says. “It was an absolute no. So, I went to bed crying and woke up at 4:30 in the morning and said, ‘I’m just going to move the parade’ and my husband said, ‘Go back to sleep sweetheart. You’re dreaming.’ I’m like, ‘It’s a great dream.’”

She was on the phone with Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle at 8 a.m. about starting the parade up the New River. He bought in. Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International and CEO of Seminole Gaming, supported her along with marine heavyweights, including Bob Roscioli.

She soon discovered what a challenge it would be to line up yachts way up the New River.

The captain of the Lady Windridge, the largest yacht in the parade, told her the city would have to stop discharges at a major storm drain, and the Florida East Coast Railway would need to keep its bridge open. Most parade attendees probably have no idea of the logistics behind the boat parade, such as big yachts being towed backwards.

Some people called her an idiot and said she would have death on her hands doing a parade along the winding river. It was torture for six months, she says.

Scott-Founds and her team made it work, though. The new route through the heart of the city added more attendees before the boats go north on the Intracoastal Waterway.

“There are so many hundreds of thousands of people downtown and in all the condominiums who can see it for free,” Scott-Founds says. “As a native and somebody that cares about this parade, more eyes on this parade for a free event that brings families together? It’s perfect. Just incredible and beautiful.”

The perfect storm

Those in the marine industry are troopers and can endure all sorts of bad weather, so the parade has a history of going on rain or shine.

The parade had to be canceled because of COVID in 2020, but that came with plenty of time to plan. Unfortunately, plans for the 2023 parade encountered the perfect storm.

The rain forecast was bad enough, but the Tuesday before the Parade there were growing concerns about the winds, and the Coast Guard got involved along with the fire department and the city manager.

“We were starting conversation early that week, but then on Friday when we had to make the decision, it was an obvious one when the NOAH gentleman on screen said, ‘If you don’t cancel the parade, I might have to quit my job,’ because he compared it to the perfect storm in Boston where these two systems were going to collide — one from the Gulf and one from the Atlantic — and they were going to stop and just be a nightmare over Florida, not go anywhere. It is exactly what occurred,” Scott-Founds says. For an organization that puts safety first, the choice was clear: no parade. It couldn’t be rescheduled a day later because of the complex logistics, such as Brightline adjusting its schedule, moving boats off city docks for staging, and some parade boats being already signed up for charters.

Despite the weather, Dawn Diehl, Winterfest’s event director coordinated with sponsors and charters to ensure some of the corporate parties continued, but the boats were tied to the docks.

It’s not like the parade involves a small number of boats that are hanging around a lake, says Kathy Keleher, Winterfest’s marketing and parade director. It’s more like 100 traveling a 12-mile route.

“There’s a huge misconception that we can just make this parade happen in 30 days. We really can’t,” Keleher says. “It takes a village.”

With a bit of ingenuity, the one-hour Winterfest TV special still happened on locally on WSVN Channel 7 as well as in Boston and available nationally through Bally Sports Sun. Winterfest’s online presence was enhanced to promote this area to the world via Visit Lauderdale’s partnership.

Winterfest Adds Seminole Name

As an FSU Seminole, Scott-Founds wanted the tribe involved in the parade and found a kindred spirit in longtime tribal leader Max Osceola, until he passed away in 2020.

The tribe became a Parade partner in 1995 and became title sponsor in 2004. Winterfest and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino just inked a new five-year deal.

“He appreciated the boat parade because he used to watch it as a kid from the shore,” Scott-Founds says. “When we moved the Parade, he was even more elated.” The reason is the parade would go right by the Stranahan House, which was a trading post Osceola visited as a child. He was proud that part of his legacy was bringing the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade to downtown Fort Lauderdale.”

Scott-Founds also credits Seminole Hard Rock’s Allen and Susan Renneisen, as being strong supporters.

“We’re just very fortunate that they’re in the entertainment business and they have escalated our presence and our international presence, our growth, and people know about us all over the world,” she says. The Hard Rock hosts Winterfest’s Black Tie Gala, which is the largest in the county with 1,300 people last year.

Scott-Founds also gives kudos to sponsors such as Republic National Distributing Company, and Broadway Across America, which helped provide a “Moulin Rouge” vibe last year. This year it will be “Disney’s The Lion King.”

“It’ll be a jungle out there and I’m really excited,” she says.

‘From Sawgrass to Seagrass’

Fittingly, the theme in 2024 will be “From Sawgrass to Seagrass, Waves of Holiday Cheer.”

“This is our first opportunity to really embrace environmental messaging because we’re connected by water from the Everglades to our beaches, to our sea. And as we move forward, we’re looking at ways of really showcasing how important our water is to us as a community, but also in general” Scott-Founds says. “It really embraces all that Broward County has to offer if you think about the panthers, black bears, alligators and the egrets out west and water flowing into our sea, where you’ve got the underwater sea life.”

Don’t be surprised if there is an alligator with a Santa hat.

“It really does give a lot of opportunity for the boaters for decorating. They can decorate sawgrass, they can decorate seagrass, they can do holiday cheer and waves, so it’s multidimensional,” Scott-Founds says.

The Power Girls

Keleher has been part of the team since 2001 and previously worked on the Pompano Beach boat parade. She and Scott-Founds would have occasional chats.

“If you haven’t noticed what my president and CEO is like, she is incredibly bubbly, almost 99.9% of the time,” Keleher says. “I just happened to call her on a day in which she wasn’t and asked what was wrong. Lisa responded that my predecessor was leaving, and I said, ‘Hire me!’”

Another key part of what some call the Winterfest Power Girls Team is Diehl, who handles the events such as the Launch Party, Family Fun Day, Grand Marshal Reception, Black Tie Ball, Parade Viewing and the design and chartering of 10 to 15 key corporate parade boats.

Scott-Founds has known Diehl since sixth grade and hired her immediately when she started with Winterfest. “My staff is not staff. We are a family,” she says.

“The three of us make a wonderful team,” Scott-Founds says. “We all wear a lot of hats, but we all have our lanes that we’re driving in or boating in. So, we try to complement each other. It is a small team. We have a few part-time, people that help us during the year, 350 volunteers at the end of the day … We need everybody.”

Family members are among volunteers. “Both Dawn and Kathys’ kids have grown up with Winterfest and volunteered. My niece was an intern, and my nephew, Ryan, was boat parade chairman for seven years in my early years,” Scott-Founds continued. “My dad when he w.as alive (when I first started), my brother, his wife, and my sisters have been involved with this organization. David, my husband, is always there for me and Winterfest”

The organization’s “family” bond expands to Winterfest’s 50-member board, who are community leaders and care passionately about the event, Scott-Founds says. She highly values boat parade Chairman Britt Lanier, franchise-owner of Two Men and a Truck, and Winterfest Chairman Bill Walker, who is CEO and chairman of Water Taxi of Fort Lauderdale.

“When Bill Walker came and took over Water Taxi, his first question to me was, ‘What can I do for you?’ And he has grown the company exponentially, he continues to be community-minded. And as our chairman of the board, we’re delighted to have someone that knows the marine industry as well as he does,” Scott-Founds says. Water Taxi’s boats play key roles in the parade as entry and safety vessels called control boats.

“If you think about all the events out there, if we could charge a dollar at the gate or on the Intracoastal for everybody that sees the parade, that’d be over a million dollars in a day. But this is a free event, and that’s why we work so hard. That’s why our sponsors are so important to us because we’re providing something that brings a $53 million economic impact at no charge for the people that see it and are enjoying,” Scott-Founds says.

Another free event is Family Fun Day, which had more than 5,000 attendees last year. Then, the Museum of Discovery and Science opened for free after 3 p.m. to extend the day.

“We’re always trying to work with our partners to do good things for this community and not nickel and diming, because in the world we live in, there’s a cost for everything,” Scott-Founds says. “We really just try to share our wealth, share our joy, if you will. There’s something for everyone.”

Facts & Figures

A look at Winterfest’s economic impact in 2022:

Total impact in the Broward County area: $50.1 million
44 percent of attendees were first-time visitors
Of those traveling from out of county, 69 percent specifically visited for Winterfest
36 percent of parade viewers had an income of $100,000 or above
The Parade is seen globally because of the support of partners such as WSVN Channel 7, Bally Sports Sun and Visit Lauderdale
Hotel occupancy was 78 percent, up 7 percent from the monthly average

Distinctions for Scott-Founds