Portrait in giving
Floragraph of donor going to the Rose Parade
By Randa Lipman, Special to My Life | Commerical Appeal

Mid-South Transplant Foundation, the organ procurement organization serving Memphis and the 150-mile radius, hosted an event Dec. 16 with Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis to decorate a floral portrait of organ and tissue donor Jill Daniel, who was an ICU nurse at the hospital.

Afterward, the floragraph traveled to Pasadena and will appear on the Donate Life Rose Parade float, "Seize the Day!" on New Year's Day. Jill's husband, Tad, and their three children Anna, Charlie and Melanie had the support of friends and family as they put the final touches on the floragraph.

Jill died in August 2009 at the age of 49 when her migraine headache progressed into several irreversible cerebral hemorrhages. She had told her husband many times if anything happened to her she wanted to be an organ and tissue donor and help save other people; and she did save so many.

Jill's floragraph is one of only 60 floral portraits that will appear on the Donate Life float to honor the lives of organ and tissue donors and the decision they made to give the gift of life by donating their organs.

"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.

More than 28,000 lives are saved each year in the United States through the gift of organ donation, giving hope to the more than 109,000 people awaiting a life-saving organ transplant. In addition, every year hundreds of thousands of people need donated corneas and tissue to prevent or cure blindness, heal burns or save limbs.

The Daniel family of Atoka was joined by Derick Ziegler, administrator and chief executive officer of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis; Kim Van Frank, executive director, Mid-South Transplant Foundation; Jan Padgett, RN, ICU nurse manager, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis; Ami Schriner, RN (Jill's co-worker) who sang a song in honor of Jill; staff of Mid-South Transplant Foundation; and Jill's co-workers.

Together, the Daniels and co-workers finished decorating the floral portrait of Jill.

Mid-South Transplant Foundation is sponsoring the Daniels to attend the Rose Parade.

Mid-South Transplant Foundation is located at 8001 Centerview Pkwy., Suite 302, in Memphis. For more information about MSTF or Donate Life, visit midsouthtransplant.org or donatelifefloat.org. For information on how to become an organ and tissue donor in Tennessee, visit the Tennessee Ogran & Tissue Donor Registry at TnDonorRegistry.org.

Randa Lipman is manager of community outreach for Mid-South Transplant Foundation.