Avera Transplant Institute Donates Funds for Rose Bowl Parade Float

If you tuned in to the Rose Bowl Parade on Monday, January 1st, you may have noticed the Donate Life organization's parade float called "Giving from the Heart." The Avera Transplant Institute donated funds to help make this float a reality. "As we ring in the New Year, it's a good time for us to be mindful of the over 90,000 people who are on the waiting list to receive a donation," said Beth Plahn, director of the Transplant Institute. "It's also a good time for folks to consider becoming an organ donor and taking steps to make sure that designation in on their driver's license."

This is Donate Life's fourth Rose Parade float. It carried 23 riders, each of whom has donated organs, tissue or blood so that others might live. The float is full of symbolism: eight colorful gift boxes represented the lives that can be saved by a single organ donor; fifty bouquets signify the lives that can be saved or enhanced by a single tissue donor; and the red ribbon's three loops represented the lives that can be touched through a single blood donation. The heart at the front of the float was filled with a "Family Circle" garden of roses dedicated by families and organizations touched by donation and transplantation. Nine of those roses were donated by Avera Transplant Institute in honor of four of the five most recent donor families (those whose loved one died at our facility and agreed to donate their loved one's organs), along with the five candidates that have been waiting the longest on South Dakota's list (Avera McKennan).

For float images and more information visit the Donate Life Float website.