Float Riders make Rose Parade memorable

Twenty-eight people - each with a special donation story to tell – participated in the activities of the 123rd annual Tournament of Rose Parade float which featured the “Just Imagine…One More Day” float.

One gave a kidney, passing along the gift of a life without dialysis to his twin brother.  Another lost a life partner in an instant, yet her organs also went to another.   They were among those who rode the Donate Life ‘Just Imagine…One More Day’ float in the 123rd Annual Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 2 in Pasadena.

Twenty-eight people were selected to ride the 55-foot, clock inspired float because each had a role in either receiving or making sure others had “One More Day” of life through organ and tissue donation.

“I am the one who is honored,” said San Francisco Fire Captain Anthony Robinson, who is a heart transplant recipient.  As he rode the five-mile parade route, he held a picture of his donor, Danny Durbin, 39, of Eureka, CA.

Sometime during the days before they boarded the float early that morning, the float riders had bonded as one group with donation as the glue.   And their stories, when told before small groups or in large gathering, brought people to tears.

That was the case on Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena.  With the float waiting for the parade to begin, riders lined along one side, each one holding a picture of a loved one or donor.  People approached, asking questions about those in the pictures.  Nancy Michael tearfully answered questions about the young woman whose portrait she held.   Nancy was felled quickly by liver disease and the woman’s donated liver saved her life.

For Emily Fennell of the Central California town of Yuba City, her gift from a donor was a hand – the transplanted hand with promise of one day allowing her to hug her daughter. 

Those gifts of life examples abounded on the float.   Each of the half dozen clock faces on the float bore a floral portrait of someone who had donated organs or tissues.  Those faces spanned ages and ethnic groups.  African American Kimberley Ibarra-Williams was in her 40s and manager of the Walnut Creek DMV when she passed quickly.  Her gift was lifesaving tissue.

At 11, Janeen Marie Ganahl told her parents she wanted to be an organ donor if something happened.   Just two weeks later, an auto accident took her life.

There will be others in 2012 who will give the gift of life.  Already, 112,000 people in the United States need help – an organ which will mean life for them.   And because there are too few donors, about 18 of those will die waiting.

“One More Day” was the promise of this year’s rose parade… it’s also the hope of those who wait and the opportunity for those who in the coming year will decide to be organ and tissue donors.

For information on organ donation:  Click on the pink dot at the top of this page.

For biographies on all the float riders and those depicted in floragraphs,  go to www.donatelifefloat.org