LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Donate Life unveiled today its 2021 theme, “Community of Life,” and announced that they will be part of the Tournament of Roses 2021 TV special, “The Rose Parade’s New Year Celebration presented by Honda,” including live-to-tape musical and marching band performances, heartwarming segments related to the Rose Parade, celebrity guest appearances, special Rose Bowl game football highlights, equestrians, spectacular floats from years past, and a behind-the-scenes look into the making of a float. The Rose Parade TV special will air on various broadcast networks on Jan. 1, 2021.
The Donate Life community is preparing a tribute for this legendary event, with a floral sculpture that honors donors and donation health care professionals. This sculpture will be available to view at the Tournament House in Pasadena on New Year’s Day. Award-winning float designer, Charles Meier, created the sculpture’s beautiful design; and Fiesta Parade Floats will produce it this year.
The 2021 Donate Life Rose Parade floral sculpture, “Community of Life,” features a vibrant floral honeycomb built by bees, sharing the important message that we are stronger when we work together as a community. Twenty-one hexagonal memorial portraits of donors are interwoven within the honeycomb, symbolizing the life donors give through organ, eye and tissue donation. Much like the families and donors who have given the gift of life, bees epitomize a harmonious community that helps and benefits others. Just like busy bees, donation health care professionals devote every single day to make donation and transplantation possible; and the names of six health care professionals will be featured within the floral sculpture.
Individually dedicated roses will adorn this floral installation, to honor the gift of life given by donors, donor families, transplant recipients and health care heroes, carrying personal messages of love, remembrance, hope and gratitude.
“In a year of uncertainties, the need for lifesaving transplants continues; and both donor families and donation health care professionals are part of the community of life that saves and heals lives through organ donation and transplantation,” said Tom Mone, chairman of the Donate Life Rose Parade float committee and CEO of OneLegacy, the nonprofit organ, eye and tissue recovery organization serving the greater Los Angeles area. “Transplants would not be possible without our generous donors and their families, who, in the midst of tragedy as they lose a loved one, find the courage to say 'YES' to donation and to save lives. Even in this pandemic, the donation and transplantation community still brings hope to both donor families, as they see their loved ones’ legacy living in others, and to grateful recipients who now find a second chance at life. Together we can save and heal lives by saying 'YES' to organ, eye and tissue donation.”
This year’s Donate Life Rose Parade Experience will include a total of 27 participants from all around the nation, featuring 21 donors who have given a second chance at life to others and six transplant professionals who have gone above and beyond their call of duty to make donation and transplantation possible during this pandemic.
The Donate Life Rose Parade Experience is produced by OneLegacy and is made possible thanks to dozens of sponsoring donation, transplant, health care, and family care organizations and individuals who help make donation and transplant possible across the country. Sponsors for 2021 include: Axogen, Community Tissue Services, Cryolife, Dignity Memorial Providers of Las Vegas, Donate Life California, Donor Alliance, Donor Network West, JJ’s Legacy, Legacy Donor Services Foundation, Legacy of Hope, LifeLink Foundation, LifeShare of Oklahoma, Lifesharing, LOPA, Nevada Donor Network, New England Donor Services, OneLegacy and Specialist Direct.
As the world’s most visible campaign to inspire organ, eye and tissue donation, The Donate Life Rose Parade Experience inspires viewers to help the over 1 million people in need of organ, eye or tissue transplants each year. Register today to become an organ, eye or tissue donor by visiting DonateLife.net.
About Donate Life America
Donate Life America is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit alliance of national organizations and state teams across the United States committed to increasing organ, eye and tissue donation. Donate Life America manages and promotes the national brand for donation, Donate Life, and assists Donate Life State Teams and national partners in facilitating high-performing donor registries; developing and executing effective multi-media donor education programs; and motivating the American public to register now as organ, eye and tissue donors.
