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2014 Donate Life Rose Parade Float

“Light Up the World”

Script to Accompany Float Unveiling PowerPoint Presentation

Rev. 6/17/13

This presentation may be preceded by the 3-minute Donate Life Rose Parade Float “History” Video. Please request a copy by emailing Annie Kiefhaber at akiefhaber@.

Donate Life’s entry in the Rose Parade is not just a float…it is the totality of what the float makes possible. It is America’s Donate Life Celebration… (CLICK)

A national media campaign with representation from 43 states and the District of Columbia last year, as well as Canada and the Dominican Republic. Scores of national, regional and local media stories follow riders and floragraph families as they make their meaningful pilgrimages to Pasadena to usher in the New Year. (CLICK)

In all, thanks to the efforts of more than 140 official sponsors each year, more than 2,000 positive news stories about the float and its riders have been placed since 2004, and each year our call to action is seen by more than 30 million TV viewers, up to one million parade spectators, and tens of millions more in 150 countries worldwide.

The Donate Life Rose Parade Float began with one man’s vision. In April of 2001, lung recipient Gary Foxen, with the ever-present support of his wife Lois, wrote to the chairman of OneLegacy, the organ and tissue recovery agency serving the greater Los Angeles area. In the letter, he shared his dream of thanking donor families and celebrating the gift of life in the Rose Parade, the third most-watched entertainment event in the world. (CLICK)

Gary’s dream became a reality on New Year’s Day 2004 as Donate Life made its Rose Parade debut. Each year, the float committee has used the parade theme as a starting point to create a story that anyone can relate to, represents the experiences of the participants it spotlights, and achieves a balance between celebration and reverence. (CLICK)

Year after year a message of strength has been ever more evident, from lifting each other up with hot air balloons... (CLICK)

…to celebrating how donors and recipients are “Stars of Life” … (CLICK)

…who leave soaring legacies. (CLICK)

We paused to reflect on the preciousness of time... (CLICK)

…before dramatizing the ups and downs of our “Journeys of the Heart.” (CLICK)

So how will we inspire our nation and the world this year? As always, we began with the theme of the parade, which for the 125th Rose Parade is “Dreams Come True.” (CLICK)

Of course, for recipients their dreams of new life come true, and their brilliant smiles reflect their gratitude. (CLICK)

Living donors have a light all their own knowing their generosity has made dreams come true. (CLICK)

But for donor families, their dreams do not come true. Their dreams are shattered, and no wish upon a star can bring them back. (CLICK)

But we also know that many times, donor family members and recipients carry on the dreams of their loved ones. For Nicholas Green, thanks to his gift of life and a generation of advocacy by his family, his dream of having streets and parks named after him were realized. (CLICK) Michele DeMoss created a foundation, Foster Socks, to carry on her daughter Blair’s passion for clothing foster children. (CLICK) Likewise, another donor family created Jessie's Desk, a nonprofit organization that – like their daughter Jessie Starnes used to do without her parents' knowledge – provides children with school supplies. (CLICK) A donor family from Louisiana will sponsor a float rider and floragraph honoree as a tribute to Ryan Viator’s Legacy. (CLICK) And Steve Ferkau does Chicago’s “Hustle Up the Hancock” with friends of his lung donor Kari who dreamed of running with her once again. (CLICK)

With this in mind, our 2014 Donate Life Rose Parade Float campaign will inspire with this story:

Read first paragraph (CLICK)

Read second paragraph (CLICK)

Read third paragraph (CLICK)

Light Up the World: a festival of beautiful lanterns which will inspire viewers worldwide to save and heal lives through organ, eye and tissue donation. (CLICK)

The lanterns will illuminate 30 riders, all grateful organ and tissue transplant recipients.

Each lantern is adorned with 72 memorial floragraph portraits of deceased donors whose legacies of life shine brightly.

In recognition of the increasing importance of living donation to meet the ever-increasing need for kidney transplants, 12 living organ donor Walkers accompany the float on foot, demonstrating their ongoing vitality.

Once again, the Dedication Garden will be filled with thousands of roses bearing personal messages of love, hope and remembrance and serving as a source of great potential for relationship-building with constituents, DMVs and hospitals.

Leading up to New Year’s Day 2014, our Riders, Walkers, Floragraph Families and the national community who make the Donate Life Rose Parade Float campaign possible invite tens of millions of people worldwide to “Light Up the World” and support organ, eye and tissue donation. And we hope every member of our community will consider joining, and contributing to, “America’s Donate Life Celebration.” (END)

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