Whittier Daily News | Ben Baeder
PASADENA - In Wooster, Ohio, college administrator Patrice Smith is living with only one kidney.
Two-thousand-three-hundred miles away, a 26-year-old woman and her family are still trying to figure out why a complete stranger would give away an organ.
"Who does that for people you don't even know?" said Karol Franks, whose daughter, Jenna, received the kidney after her's were destroyed by a rare bladder disease.
"Just talking about it right now, I'm going to start crying again," Franks said.
She was one of hundreds of people involved in this year's Donate Life Rose Parade float. Since 2004, a coalition of organ donation advocacy groups has entered a float in the Rose Parade to remind people about organ donations.
In all, the float will feature images of 72 donors and will have 28 riders who have received organs or tissue. Many of the images, called floragraphs, are meticulously filled in by family members, who use seeds and leaves to bring the images to life.
Pictured on this year's float will be Jose Alfredo Carrillo of El Monte, whose tissue went to about 50 people.
About 112,000 people in the United States are waiting for organ donations, and the needs are especially acute among Latinos, according to statistics from Donate Life.
Read more:Rose Parade float bring solace, community to families of those who donated organs - Whittier Daily Newshttp://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_19650543#ixzz1i84Cx5hg
Pages
YOU HAVE THE POWER TO SAVE LIVES. PLEDGE AND REGISTER TODAY
Follow us to learn more about organ donation and our national efforts to raise awareness about the critical need for donated organs. We are finding inspiration in unexpected places.
BECAUSE ORGAN & TISSUE DONATION MATTERS
There are over 113,000 Americans waiting for a life-saving transplant. Registering takes only a few minutes. Please encourage your family, friends and colleagues to pledge the "gift of life" by signing up at your State's donor registry. Click HERE to learn how. Californians, please visit Donate Life California.
Our Pledge Life Memorial, "Celebrate Life...Remembrance". We are pledging to HONOR, remember and celebrate the lives of donors, transplant recipients, donation and transplant community members. Will you PLEDGE with us to do the same?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)

0 COMMENTS:
Post a Comment