Source: fb Turks and Caicos
Turks and Caicos Islander Sasha Clare will be remembered on a float at the 2011 Rose Parade along with 59 other honorees who in their deaths gave life to others through organ, eye, and tissue donation.
“I’m so excited about this event and that my hero, my Sasha, will be there for all the world to see him through organ donation,” Elaine Brooks-Clare told the fp. “Words cannot express what I’m feeling right now.”
Life Alliance is sending her and a family member to Pasadena, California, for the New Year’s Rose Parade where Sasha’s photo will be on their Donate Life Float.
In 2006, just before starting the master’s program at Savannah College of Art and Design, Sasha was critically injured in a motorbike accident. He sustained a head injury and was transferred via air ambulance from the TCI to a hospital in Hollywood, Florida, where he was declared brain dead.
“As a mother, I am very proud that as an organ donor on Aug. 7, 2006, Sasha renewed the lives of four recipients and gave sight so that they now live more productive lives.”
A 75-year-old man got one of Sasha’s kidneys, an 11-year-old boy the other kidney, and a 62-year-old man received his liver. Michael Mohammed, a Trinidadian, living with Sasha’s heart, and his younger daughter will be accompanying Clare to the event in Pasadena.
Clare stated that “through organ donation, my family and I have found strength and healing. … In November 2008, I met the gentleman who received Sasha’s heart. I was blessed to listen to it beating in his chest. It was an amazing experience! Knowing that Sasha’s heart beats on, having his son, Shashano, to remind me of him, gives me a great deal of peace.”
Sasha’s death inspired Eleanor to petition and work toward getting the helmet law passed in the TCI in October 2006 to require motorcyclists to wear helmets. She also had a sign erected at the accident site: “Protect your head, don’t end up dead! Wear your helmets. Wear your seat belts.”
Donate Life’s 60 floragraph honorees will honor all donors and the everyday dreams they make possible through the gift of life.
“We will celebrate the lives of each donor during both the creation of the donor’s floragraph and on New Year’s Day when the portraits shine their light on tens of millions of Rose Parade spectators and television viewers,” said Bryan Stewart, chairman of the Donate Life float committee.
Also accompanying Clare to the parade will be Sasha’s son, Shashano, grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley and Annie Brooks, Sorrell (Sasha’s only brother), his wife Casey and their two children, as well as aunts Charlamae and Lodie Brooks and their children.
The 122nd Rose Parade will take place Saturday, Jan. 1, at 11 a.m.
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