Published: Nov. 8, 2013
While we may not know who'll be playing in the 100th annual Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, through the American Hospital Association and Gift of Life Michigan, we do know that in one small way, Sparrow will be there.
As one of Michigan's leading hospitals for organ donation, Sparrow President & CEO Dennis Swan had the opportunity to dedicate a rose that will be included on the Donate Life float in the 2014 Rose Parade.
About the float... (www.donatelifefloat.org)
Since 2004, the Donate Life Rose Parade Float has served as a memorial to organ and tissue donors and a platform for donor families, living donors and transplant recipients to inspire the world to save and heal those in need through the gift of life.
Each dedicated rose is placed in a vial that carries a unique, personal message of love, hope and remembrance, and honors donors, recipients and others touched by organ, eye and tissue donation. Altogether, thousands of roses create a Dedication Garden that is a featured design element on the Donate Life float each year.
The 2014 Donate Life Rose Parade Float entry features a festival of lanterns illuminating 30 riders - all grateful organ and tissue transplant recipients - and 12 living organ donors walking alongside to demonstrate their ongoing vitality. Five enormous lamps are adorned with 81 memorial floragraph portraits of deceased donors whose legacies of life shine brightly. The riders are seated throughout a dedication garden filled with thousands of roses bearing personal messages of love, hope and remembrance.
Donate Life urges viewers to help make dreams come true for more than one million people in need of life-saving and healing organ, tissue and cornea transplants. Join America's 110 million registered donors so that everyone whose life and livelihood depends on a transplant can have one. Sign up when renewing your driver's license or by visiting www.DonateLifeAmerica.org.