Donate Life’s 2010 Rose Parade float entry

CONTACT:    Elena de la Cruz, OneLegacy, (213) 479-4704

Lisa Bernfeld or Rivian Bell, JDI Communications, (310) 556-3227

 Western Medical Center Santa Ana honors organ and tissue donors with dedicated roses to be placed on Donate Life float in 2010 Rose Parade^®

Donate Life Rose Ceremony to be Held for Donor Families
at Western Medical Center Santa Ana on Friday, Nov. 6, at 4:00 pm

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Nov. 4, 2009 – Western Medical Center Santa Ana, in collaboration with OneLegacy, the organ and tissue recovery organization serving the seven-county greater Los Angeles area, will honor organ and tissue donors and their families at a Donate Life Rose Ceremony to be held at Western Medical Center Santa Ana this Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, at 4:00 pm.

The Donate Life Rose Ceremony welcomes families of deceased donors served by Western Medical Center Santa Ana to be thanked for their loved ones’ life-saving and healing gifts of organs and tissue. At the ceremony, Western Medical Center Santa Ana will present each family with a certificate and dedicated rose which will ultimately be placed on the Donate Life float in the 2010 Rose Parade.

Among those honored will be the family of Sophia Sales (Orange), who died at age two in a motor vehicle accident and who saved two lives through her donation, among them a three-year-old who received her liver.

Sales was one of 14 organ donors recovered in Western Medical Center Santa Ana in 2008.  The hospital was recently awarded a Gold Medal of Honor by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for excellence in supporting organ donation.  Western Medical Center Santa Ana was one of three hospitals in the greater Los Angeles area –and the only one in Orange County – that was recognized by the HSS for exceeding national donation goals.

“We are grateful to the donors and their families for their courageous decision to help others in need at such a sad time in their lives” said Shelle Malm, vice president business development/communications at Western Medical Center Santa Ana.

The Donate Life Rose Ceremony will feature several guest speakers, among them a transplant recipient, donor family member and Dan Brothman, Western Medical’s CEO.  During the event, each donor family will be handed two rose vials with a special tag upon which the family can write a personal message to their loved one. One vial will be kept as a memento, while the other will make its journey to Pasadena, where the vial, carrying a fresh rose, will be ceremonially placed on the Donate Life float on Dec. 29, three days before the 121st Rose Parade. At that time, all of the roses commemorating Western Medical Center Santa Ana’s donors will join thousands of roses dedicated through the float’s Donate Life Family Circle program with personal messages of love, hope and remembrance coming from around the world.

“We are deeply grateful to donors and their families for their generous decision to help others in need,” said Bryan Stewart, Donate Life float committee chairman and OneLegacy’s vice president of communications. “It is our privilege to present hospitals and donor families an opportunity to reconnect in such a meaningful way and to jion the nation’s Donate Life community in this international celebration.”

The dedicated roses will be featured on Donate Life’s seventh Rose Parade float entry, New Life Rises, which features a phoenix, the mythical symbol of life coming out of the ashes of death and representing those who gave life in their passing and the people whose lives are renewed through transplantation.

OneLegacy is the federally designated, non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ and tissue donation in the seven-county greater Los Angeles area. Since 2004, OneLegacy has coordinated the annual Donate Life Rose Parade float campaign in collaboration with more than 60 organizations nationwide.

For more information about the Donate Life Rose Parade float, visit the official float website at www.donatelifefloat.org.

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This event is not for public attendance.  The New Santa Ana blog extends its appreciation to all those who donate organs and tissues, or who are on donor lists.  Our editor, Art Pedroza, has an organ donation sticker on his drivers license and he is on the bone marrow donation list.  He also donates blood to the Red Cross.