For more than 20 years, the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float has inspired people across the country to save and enhance lives with the powerful message of organ, eye and tissue donation. The 2024 Rose Parade® theme, “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language,” illustrates how in a world of different cultures, beliefs, hopes and dreams, one language unites us all — music.
AdventHealth Shawnee Mission proudly partnered with Midwest Transplant Network in dedicating a rose vial that was featured on the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade float. Each vial features a rose with a message of love to honor organ, eye and tissue donors and recipients as well as their family members.
All Rose Parade floats must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark. The OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade float features each year numerous “floragraphs,” which replicate photographs but are made entirely of organic materials, remembering donors from around the country.
This year, parade co-sponsor Midwest Transplant Network’s floragraph float honored Jayme Sue Louque, a 14-year-old organ, eye and tissue donor from Olathe, Kansas.
In addition to Louque’s floragraph and that of many others made in memory of other donor heroes from around the country, the float featured many individual roses with unique messages from some of Midwest Transplant Network’s hospital and community partners. AdventHealth Shawnee Mission works closely with Midwest Transplant Network to facilitate organ, eye and tissue donation, and the hospital staff was honored to dedicate a rose vial to donor heroes.
“Being a part of the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade float is an honor and a privilege,” said Lisa Hays, MD, chief medical officer at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission. “It is our chance to say thank you to all the donor heroes who have provided more than 28,000 lifesaving transplants since Midwest Transplant Network’s inception in 1973.”
Although this was the first year that AdventHealth Shawnee Mission was represented in the Rose Parade, the hospital partners with Midwest Transplant Network to honor donors annually in the Kansas City area through their Wall of Heroes program. Each April during Donate Life Month, AdventHealth adds donor names to the Wall of Heroes, a plaque located on the campus of AdventHealth Shawnee Mission. Hospital staff provide special remembrance gifts to family members and also honor donors through a prayer ceremony.
“The Wall of Heroes honors the sacrifice donors and donor families make and celebrates the gifts of life presented to recipients,” said Abbie Weatherley, clinical nurse specialist in the emergency department at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission. “The event is a true representation of sorrow, remembrance, healing, hope and human capacity for generosity and compassion.”
To learn more about AdventHealth Shawnee Mission or Midwest Transplant Network, visit AdventHealthKC.com or mwtn.org.
Photo credit: Taylor Brookins, MTN Family Services Manager
