AATB is supporting the Donate Life Rose Parade for the fifth year, this year as a top benefactor. The float rider and floragraph have a unique bond. Eric Miller, the donor father who spoke at the 32nd Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL is the float rider, and his late son Micah Miller is pictured on the floragraph. This year’s float rider is sponsored by the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF). 

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 29, 2008 – For 26 people affected by organ and tissue donation, the chance of a lifetime approaches as they prepare for their starring roles as riders on the 2009 Donate Life Rose Parade Float, Stars of Life. Over the past five years, more than 100 donor family members, living donors, and transplant recipients have journeyed down Colorado Boulevard on the float that has brought the need for organ and tissue donation to international prominence as part of America’s New Year Celebration®, the Tournament of Roses Parade®. 

Included in the Donate Life float’s “Stars of Life” are 38 gold stars with floragraphs – artistic portraits created with floral materials – depicting loved ones whose donations of organs, corneas and/or tissue saved and healed those in need. Families of the donors depicted in the floragraphs will journey cross-country to Pasadena in the weeks leading up to the Parade to decorate the portraits of their loved ones. Dozens of white stars represent those among us who have been touched by donation, while four transparent stars will symbolize those in need of donated organs, corneas and tissue. The large orange-yellow stars at the front of the float will carry more than 1,000 roses dedicated through the Family Circle program, with each carrying a personal message of love, gratitude and hope to a donor, recipient or candidate in need of a transplant. Last year, dedicated roses came from 50 states and 21 countries.
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Float Riders
Floragraphs
Tournament of Roses Parade
Family Circle program