Donate Life Rose Parade floats have proceeded down Colorado Boulevard for nearly 20 years, wowing crowds with 50-foot petal-and-seed sculptures and dazzling ornaments.
But the floral finery pales in comparison to the courage, strength and compassion exhibited by those who ride on or march alongside the float on New Year’s Day.
Heart transplants, weeks-long comas and the heartbreaking death of loved ones are only a part of the lifelong battles faced by the dozens of families who united in Irwindale on Friday, Dec. 10, to share their personal stories and preview this year’s “Courage to Hope” float.
Former Tournament of Roses president Gerald Freeny, who also happens to be a kidney and two-time liver recipient, was responsible for selecting the float order along with a host of other duties when he oversaw the Rose Parade festivities in 2019.
“And I made sure the Donate Life float was right behind me as I went down the parade route,” Freeny said during Friday’s ceremony. “Because I know how important this cause is.”
This year, the former law enforcement officer is very much looking forward to enjoying a ride on the Donate Life Rose Parade Float, he added during a speech. “Because I won’t have to worry about anything. I just get to wave, and I know how to wave.”
And he won’t be alone. In total, Freeny will be accompanied by 13 float riders who are organ, eye and tissue recipients; 5 walkers who are living donors or organ recipients; and 35 floragraphs, portraits-in-petals that look to memorialize the deceased donors who gave the precious gift of life to complete strangers.
Such donors as Kenneth “Cody” Hodawanus, a 25-year-old Norco resident who spent two years handcrafting an award-winning grandfather clock for his mother before he died, never told their families they had registered to become organ donors. So the news came as a complete surprise to many loved ones who spoke Friday.
Nevertheless, the family of Orange County’s Gabriela Hernandez said the actions of the former Huntington Beach resident and thousands of other organ donors have inspired them in ways they never thought possible.
Ava Kaufman, a 71-year-old resident of Los Angeles, was a prominent dancer until she developed a rare autoimmune disease called dermatomyositis, which caused her to gain nearly 100 pounds and prompted the use of a walker.
“I was so close to dying I saw the light and really begged God to take me, because as I came out of a two month coma I realized I couldn’t move at all,” she said Friday. “And then I smelled my daughter’s dirty hair because she rode horses and I realized that I couldn’t leave her.”
So Kaufman made a deal with God, “after I had already thanked him for a wonderful life and asked him to take me away,” she said, highlighting how she now proudly heads a nonprofit called Ava’s Heart, which provides assistance to organ donors and recipients.
“I was told that I would never walk again and I still dance and do everything — and I’m 71,” Kaufman said. “So thank you to my donor and every donor, because there is nothing as precious as life.”
Inland Southern California resident Susan Van Campen is a living donor who volunteered to give her now-deceased father a kidney in 2004, agreed in an interview after Friday’s event.
“It was a great tragedy when my father died but my family has been inundated by kidney disease. It’s genetic so my siblings have already had four transplants from living donors,” Van Campen said. “But I’m very lucky and happy to walk next to the float. It’s something I’ve wanted to do to honor my dad after all these years.”
Hernandez’s mother Alba Trujillo shared she had mixed feelings of sorrow and happiness while she sat in the audience and listened to the heartbreaking stories, but she’s proud to know her daughter’s smile will adorn this year’s float in a one-of-a-kind floragraph.
Despite still carrying the pain of losing her daughter to a drunken driver at the youthful age of 24, Trujillo said she has lived in the spirit of Hernandez every day by participating in remembrance events or informing others about the benefits of registering to be an organ donor.
“It’s important, especially in our community where there’s a lot of myths surrounding organ donation,” Trujillo said. Fortunately, friends will spot a pink dot on her license or possibly even see her in this year’s parade and ask about its purpose.
With a smile that mirrors her daughter’s, Trujillo said she gladly tells anybody who asks to head to donatelifecalifornia.org/ to save a life.
Like Hernandez’s family, Rene Sorrentino, a 70-year-old Placentia resident, became emotional when she spoke about her fight with a deadly virus that was attacking her liver.
“They looked outward in their time of grief,” Sorrentino said, speaking about the thousands of families who — in the midst of crisis — thinkof ways they can assist complete strangers. “And that’s the only reason why I’m here today.”
It takes great courage to come such a decision, which is one reason why the 2022 “Courage to Hope” float features a lion holding a book that seeks to represents the knowledge that donor families and grateful recipients share when they say yes to donation, OneLegacy CEO Chariman Tom Mone said Friday when he took a moment to detail this year’s Venetian-inspired design and prior parade awards.
“And awards matter not just to us for ego. But when you have an award then competing networks don’t cut to commercial,” Mone said before a burst of laughter erupted from the crowd.
This year, he and Donate Life officials are hoping networks once again hone in on the float this year because a need for organ donation remains.
If they do, Mone explained, then viewers on television will be reminded that they can donate a kidney or receive a transplant, and still achieve anything they set their mind to.
Freeny summarized the feeling succinctly before the ceremony’s conclusion.
“Somebody is living inside within us,” he said. “And it gave me new life and it gave me new meaning.”