10th annual Donate Life Rose Parade float

Santa Paula News
Published:  December 28, 2012

Last week, Leslie Ngo, office manager of the Santa Paula DMV, helped to decorate the 10th annual Donate Life Rose Parade float, “Journeys of the Heart,” in honor of co-worker, Cheryl Stewart who died in June 2012, while waiting for a liver transplant.

Carrying 32 riders and featuring a magical, heart-filled world experienced by those touched by organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation, the float’s continuous, 200-foot-long, heart-shaped pathway is lined with 72 memorial floragraphs of deceased donors who are remembered every step of the way.

At present, nearly 22,000 California residents are waiting to receive life-saving organ transplants. However, due to the rarity of opportunities to donate organs, the need in the state continues to grow. All California residents are encouraged to sign up to be donors when they apply for a driver’s license or ID card at DMV or register online at www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org or www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org

Today, more than 115,000 candidates are on the national organ transplant waiting list. Largely due to the rarity of donation opportunities, only about 28,000 organs are transplanted each year. As a result, 18 candidates die each day for lack of a donor. A single organ donor can save the lives of eight people through organ donation, while a single tissue donor can save and heal 50 others through needed heart valves, corneas, skin, bone, and tendons that mend hearts, prevent or cure blindness, heal burns and save limbs. For more information: www.donatelifefloat.org.

---

---