Donate Life float hopes to inspire people to become organ donors

89.3 KPCC

One Rose Parade float honors organ and tissue donors from across the country who’ve saved and improved the lives of others. This year’s entry “One More Day” features floral portraits of people who donated life through their organs and tissue.

Almost four years ago in March, Carol Rivera of Downey lost her son, Flint Adam Rivera. She says he committed suicide a year after a drunk driver killed his girlfriend. Rivera says that shortly before her son took his own life, he renewed his driver’s license and checked the box on the application to become a donor.

Rivera says three children and two adults got veins and arteries from his heart.

"He was 6 foot tall, he had broad shoulders, a big back. They took his skin and bones and tendons and tissue from his body" Rivera says. "And it’s comforting to know that he still lives around there you know—somewhere in somebody a little bit of him’s still there."

Read more: http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/01/02/30600/donate-life-float-hopes-inspire-more-people-become/