The Donate Life Rose Parade® Float Celebrates 19 Years in the Rose Parade And Announces Its 2022 Float Theme, “Courage to Hope”

Published 4 years ago via Business Wire

Dozens of Organ, Eye and Tissue Donors and Recipients to be Part of the Donate Life Float, as it Sails Down the Streets of Pasadena on January 1, 2022

As part of the 2021 Donate Life Virtual Run/Walk’s opening ceremony, which streamed LIVE on Facebook and Instagram on April 24, OneLegacy unveiled the 2022 Donate Life Rose Parade® float’s design and theme, Courage to Hope. The float will be part of the 2022 Rose Parade that will take place in Pasadena, Calif. on New Year’s Day.

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Editor’s Note: The float rendering is included here. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Editor’s Note: The float rendering is included here. (Graphic: Business Wire)

During the Donate Life Run/Walk’s live broadcast on April 24, 2021, the Donate Life float’s crew chiefs, Mike and Mimi Thompson, officially unveiled the 2022 Donate Life float in a moving video message to thousands of participants and viewers.

The 2022 Rose Parade will feature elements that were planned for the 2021 parade, including the theme “Dream. Believe. Achieve.” The 2022 Parade Theme will expand beyond the initial focus on education and will include a celebration of perseverance and strength, science and scientists, health professionals, first responders and essential workers.

“We are proud to welcome back Donate Life for their 19th Rose Parade appearance,” said Bob Miller, President of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. “Since 2004, Donate Life’s inspiring Rose Parade float entries have affirmed organ, eye and tissue donation as a social responsibility. The Tournament of Roses is honored to provide a far-reaching platform for donor families, living donors and transplant recipients to inspire millions of people throughout the nation and world to save and heal lives as donors.”

The 2022 Donate Life float, “Courage to Hope,” will feature the majestic, winged Lion of Venice from Italy’s Piazza San Marco or Saint Mark’s Square, set amidst the Venetian Gothic architecture of the Doge’s Palace or Palazzo Ducale and Venice’s quintessential gondolas and flowing canals. Organ, eye and tissue donation offers hope to donor families, who in the midst of losing a loved one, see the chance to believe their loved ones’ gifts will help save others. At the same time, those waiting to receive a lifesaving organ have the dream and the courage to hope that a donor will become available, to restore their health and change their lives. They can now achieve their life’s goals, all thanks to their donors.

Once again, award-winning float designer, Charles Meier, created the beautiful design, and the team at Fiesta Parade Floats will bring the float to life, under the direction of the Donate Life float’s crew chiefs, Mike and Mimi Thompson.

The float will feature stylized Venetian colonnades. These ornate porticos will be adorned with memorial floral portraits, honoring the gift of life and hope given by donors. Traditional gondolas will carry organ, eye and tissue recipients, as they continue sailing in their life journey, thanks to their donors’ gifts. Living donors and recipients will walk alongside the float. A lush dedication garden features individually dedicated roses and will complete the beautiful Venetian scene, along with blue and white waves, representing the flowing Venice canals.

"We are grateful to be part of the 2022 Rose Parade. Once again, LIVE and together with our communities, we get to celebrate and share the inspiring messages and power of organ, eye and tissue donation at America’s New Year’s Celebration on New Year’s Day,” said Tom Mone, CEO of OneLegacy, the nonprofit organ, eye and tissue recovery organization serving the greater Los Angeles area. "Every year, the Donate Life float gathers hundreds of participants and their families, who travel from around the U.S. to Pasadena to celebrate the gift of life. Organ, eye and tissue recipients share their gratitude for their life-saving and healing transplants, living donors are living proof of generosity and caring, and donor family members honor their loved ones, whose images are a part of the float. We are overjoyed to be able to bring these people, communities, and this cause to the Rose Parade’s worldwide audience.”

The 2022 Donate Life float will feature dozens of participants, representing donation advocacy organizations from around the country. These participants will either ride on the float, walk alongside it, or be represented on the float with a memorial floragraph or floral sculpture.

Celebrating 19 years of participation in the Rose Parade and the Tournament of Roses’ televised special, the 2022 Donate Life Rose Parade float is the center of a national effort to reach viewers from around the nation and across the globe to share the important message that organ, eye and tissue donation saves and heals lives.

The Donate Life Rose Parade float is produced by OneLegacy and is made possible thanks to dozens of sponsoring donation, transplant, healthcare, and family care organizations and individuals who help make donation and transplantation possible across the country.

As the world’s most visible campaign to inspire organ, eye and tissue donation, The Donate Life Rose Parade® float inspires viewers to help the over one 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.

About the Pasadena Tournament of Roses® and The Rose Parade® presented by Honda

The Tournament of Roses is a volunteer organization that hosts America’s New Year Celebration® with the Rose Parade® presented by Honda, the Rose Bowl Game® and a variety of accompanying events. The Association’s 935 volunteer members supply more than 80,000 hours of manpower, which will drive the success of 133rd Rose Parade, themed “Dream. Believe. Achieve.,” on Saturday, January 1, 2022, followed by the 108th Rose Bowl Game. For more information, visit www.tournamentofroses.com. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

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