Local Donor to be Honored on Donate Life Rose Parade Float

Alicia Sabaugh is one of 72 honorees who will be showcased for 47 million viewers through a "floragraph" portrait on the Donate Life float in the 2012 Rose Parade. These honorees in their deaths gave life to others through organ, eye and tissue donation. Their portraits, each made entirely of organic floral materials, will be featured on huge floral timepieces that remind us of the preciousness of time we have to spend with our loved ones.

Each year, Midwest Transplant Network honors a local organ and tissue donor hero through a floragraph on the Donate Life Rose Parade Float. The Sabaughs will attend the Rose Parade and donor family festivities leading up to the parade in Pasadena, CA. Donate Life's floragraph honorees and float riders represent all donors, transplant recipients and candidates on the waiting list. The float will also carry thousands of roses with personal dedications of love and remembrance in a unique Rose Dedication Garden.

Also, many of MTN's hospital partners are float sponsors.

Contributing Sponsors and Rose Dedications:
Centerpoint Medical Center - 50 dedications
Freeman Health System - 74 dedications
Mercy St. John's Regional Medical Center - 55 dedications
Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City - 52 dedications
University of Missouri Health Care - 70 dedications

Rose Sponsors and Rose Dedications:
The Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics - 23 dedications
Kansas Eye Bank & Cornea Research Center, Inc. - 20 dedications
St. Joseph Medical Center - 23 dedications

To learn more about floragraph honoree, Alicia Sabaugh, click here. Also, to watch the KMBC-TV story featuring the Sabaugh family's meeting with Alicia's heart recipient, Kelli Smith, and her family, click here.

More than 28,000 lives are saved each year in the U.S. through the gift of organ donation, giving hope to the more than 112,000 people awaiting a lifesaving organ transplant. In addition, every year, hundreds of thousands of people need donated corneas and tissue to prevent or cure blindness, heal burns or save limbs. Each donor has the power to save up to eight lives and heal more than 50 others through tissue and eye donation. We can all make a difference by joining our statewide donor registry at: www.DonateLifeKansas.com or www.DonateLifeMissouri.com.

For more information about the Donate Life Rose Parade Float, visit www.DonateLifeFloat.org.