Donate Life California & California DMV Honor Donors at this Year’s Rose Parade
Over the past few months, Donate Life California partnered up with the California Department of Motor Vehicles to support the Donate Life Rose Parade as we honor donors with 44 organ and tissue donors honored on the float, on top of living donors and transplants recipients.
Donate Life California would like to thank the California DMV for their effort in these activities and their continued commitment to helping close the gap of those who are waiting for lifesaving transplants and those who able to receive them.
Making A Difference With Our DMV Partners
This year the Rose Parade selected the theme of “Making a Difference”. This fits in perfectly with the work of Donate Life California and our partnership with the California DMV. From, this the Donate Life Rose Parade Float selected the theme of the “Gift of Time”.
In November, we had almost forty DMV staff and their guests join us to decorate the Donate Life Rose Parade Float. They worked to begin covering the float with some of the thousands of flowers and even more seeds, spices, and other natural materials that would cover the float that was 55 feet long, 14 feet wide and 26 feet high.
As We Honor Donors
Each year, Donate Life Californi honors a donor with ties to the DMV with a Floragraph on the float. This year, we honored Bonnie Walker, whose daughter, Tanya McClain, is the field office manager at the San Clemente office. Bonnie Walker served in the Navy where she met her husband and raised four children in Southern California. In, 2003, Bonnie Walker passed away and was a cornea donor. All four of her children, now adults, were able to join us in honoring her at the Rose Parade and the events surrounding it. Her Floragraph was placed on the Aztec calendar on the float, which Tanya and her son decorated earlier in the year. Learn more about this year’s honoree here.
Before the float was unveiled, leadership from the DMV, including Director Shimoto, many of the deputy directors and regional managers, joined the Donate Life California Board of Directors to place roses on the float to honor donors frmo across California and those they personally knew. This is an annual event where Donate Life California can say thank you to the DMV and their leadership for continuing to support the Gift of Time and California’s organ & tissue donor registry.
After over 10,000 hours of volunteer work, including those of DMV staff, the float was ready to go.
When the float was unveiled at the judging event the emotions were heavy in the air as we saw all 44 floragraphs revealed including Donate Life California and the DMV’s honoree Bonnie Walker. The crowd cheered, and tears were shed.
On New Year’s Day, the float traveled down Colorado Blvd in Pasadena where it was announced it won the “Theme Award”, for being the float to best honor of the theme of “Making a Difference”.
This was Donate Life’s fifteenth year as a part of the Rose Parade and we wouldn’t be able to do it or achieve our overall mission, without the support of DMV staff from all over the state.
Stay tuned for news about the 2019 Donate Life Rose Parade Float where will with continue to honor donors and support us in our efforts to give the Gift of Time!
