DAYTON – Community Blood Center-Community Tissue Services will sponsor the Donate Life Rose Parade float in Pasadena on Jan. 2, 2023.

The Donate Life float is part of a national campaign to help share the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation with millions of people who either visit Pasadena or tune in to watch the Rose Parade every year from across the nation and around the world.

“We are excited to join the Donate Life float as a sponsor in 2023,” said CBC-CTS Executive Vice President Christopher Graham, who will succeed Dr. David Smith as CEO in March 2023. “By sharing the stories of our participant and others who have been touched by donation, we hope to inspire many more to register as organ, eye and tissue donors, and help save and heal the lives of more than 100,000 people in the U.S. who are currently waiting for a lifesaving transplant.”

The 2023 Donate Life float CBC-CTS honoree will be Hayden Schiller, a leukemia survivor and tissue recipient from Vancouver, Washington. Aggressive chemotherapy and steroid treatments saved Hayden’s life but caused an advanced form of osteonecrosis in both legs. Donor bone grafts and cartilage transplants have helped him walk again.

The 2023 Rose Parade theme, “Turning the Corner,” celebrates the opportunity of rising above and embracing a fresh start, full of hope and joy. Organ, eye and tissue donation brings the Donate Life community together to embrace the gift of life, giving hope to both donor families and grateful recipients.

The 2023 Donate Life Rose Parade float, “Lifting Each Other Up,” celebrates the power of organ, eye and tissue donation, with donors and recipients working together to support one another. A spectacular Asian street dragon is the centerpiece of the float. In Asian cultures, dragons symbolize great power, good luck and strength. They bring prosperity and abundance.

The colorful dragon winds through flowering trees, lanterns and fans, and is emblazoned with 39 memorial floragraphs, representing those who have given the gift of life. The dragon will be supported on poles by living donors, and surrounded by organ, eye and tissue recipients, whose lives have been transformed and have turned the corner to a more auspicious future, thanks to those who said “yes” to organ, eye and tissue donation.

A traditional paifang bridge is featured in the back of the float, with a special message that highlights the power of the Gift of Life. A lush dedication garden and pods will feature thousands of individually dedicated roses to those who have given or received the gift of life through organ, eye and tissue donation.

The Donate Life Rose Parade float is produced by OneLegacy and is made possible thanks to more than 45 sponsoring donation, transplant, healthcare and family care organizations and individuals 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 1 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.

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.

Learn more at www.CBCCTS.org.

Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services is a full-service regional blood center and a global tissue graft provider headquartered in Dayton.

Community Blood Center provides blood products to 30 partner hospitals and health centers within a 18-county service area in western Ohio and eastern Indiana and to select hospitals outside its region.

Community Tissue Services is one of the largest tissue banks in the country and the largest not-for-profit provider of skin grafts for burn patients.

The Center for Tissue, Innovation and Research is one of the most advanced in the world and devoted exclusively to the engineering and development, production, and distribution of biologics.