Springfield MO family's late son to be depicted on float in Rose Bowl Parade
Blake White died on January 1, 2008.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo -- The annual Tournament of Roses Parade in California is held on New Year's Day. Flower-covered floats will line the streets in Pasadena and will be watched by millions across the world.

One float has a very special meaning to a Springfield woman and her late son. Blake White died in a New Year's Day accident in 2008. His family, even in their time of grief, decided to help save five other lives through organ and tissue donation. Blake will now be honored this year on the Donate Life float.

Blake White was a man of many passions. "His motorcycle was what he considered his baby," Blake's mother Nancy Trapp. He started out as a dishwasher at a Japanese steakhouse, but he fell in love with the idea of being a Hibatchi chef. "We had all kinds of dings all over our house from him practicing," Trapp said.

On January 1, 2008, Blake's life was cut short. "We miss him. We miss him every day."

In Blake's tragic death, hope was born. "To know that there are other people that were able to live because of his death, means everything to us also." His organs were donated and five lives were saved because of it. "He had told me about six months before his death that if anything ever happened to him to give his parts away,"

Trapp explained. Blake is now being honored by the national organ donation organization Donate Life. A floragraph was made by volunteers in Pasadena, California to be placed on a float in the Rose Bowl Parade.

"We will actually be able to go and see the float and everything," Trapp said. It's a parade that has a lot of significance for his mother Nancy. "The morning that I received the phone call from Cox South that he had been in an accident, I was watching the Rose Parade."

While Blake is no longer with us, his memory will not only live on through the people he helped save, but will be embedded into a parade that will march on for years to come. "Everybody says, well all you have is the memories. The memories stop when they died, but I have just realized I continue to have memories with him."

Blake's family started a foundation in his honor dedicated to helping families who have lost a child pay for funeral expenses and promoting how organ donation can save lives.

The family will be traveling to the Rose Bowl Parade.

• Related
• Donate Life America
• Blake White Memorial Foundation