The 28 riders, who range in age from 17 to 67, represent the spectrum of donors and recipients, including Emily Fennell of Yuba City, Calif., the West Coast's first recipient of a hand transplant. She is joined by Roxanna Green of Tucson, Ariz., mother of nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, who was born on 9/11 and whose cornea donation reflected her spirit of community service. The sports world is represented by Alex Rodriguez of Cicero, Ill., brother of boxer Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez, who died from injuries in a title bout yet saved five lives through organ donation.

"Our riders were carefully selected by sponsors to represent the millions of people who participate in and benefit from organ, eye, and tissue donation and transplantation," said Bryan Stewart, chairman of the Donate Life float committee and vice president of communications at OneLegacy, the nonprofit organ and tissue organization serving the greater Los Angeles area. "Each rider has a personal story of courage in the face of hardship, which together with the float's design encourages us all to feel the preciousness of time. Donor family members wish for "...One More Day" with their departed loved ones. Organ and tissue recipients are deeply thankful for the many days, memories and improved quality of life made possible through their donors' gifts. And living donors have the satisfaction of seeing the value of their gifts reflected in the individuals whose lives they saved. We hope their presence on our float will inspire many of the 40 million television viewers to sign up on their state's donor registry to become donors themselves.”

With a design inspired by floral clocks and clock towers from around the world, the 2012 Donate Life Rose Parade float features six enormous floral timepieces which will be adorned with 72 memorial "floragraphs" (floral portraits) of deceased donors whose gifts gave life and time to so many. A rose dedication garden honors more than 3,000 people worldwide; each vialed rose will bear a personal message of love and remembrance, while the garden's clock hands will turn backwards in a nod to the thousands of memorial dedications. Anchoring the float is a 33-foot clock tower with a rotating sun/moon dial reminding us to make each passing day count.

About one-third of the riders this year are donor family members. Among the donor mothers is Valerie Fourtunia of Beaumont, Tex., whose younger son Mikey became a tissue donor at age 22, twelve years after his older brother died. A donor father, Arnold Perez of Los Angeles, became a community volunteer after his six-year-old son Hernán passed away in a sledding accident. Hernán's organ donations saved four lives and "inspired us to continue his mission," Arnold emphasized. Janice Langbehn of Olympia, Wash. and her four adopted children with partner Lisa Marie Pond were devastated when Lisa succumbed to a cerebral aneurysm in 2007. In addition to saving lives through organ donation, their legacy includes a directive from President Obama that hospitals allow gay and lesbian family members access to their hospitalized partners.

Several living donors will ride the float to remind viewers that people, while living, can also save lives, even those of strangers. Orthopedic surgeon Jim Haemmerle, MD of Savage, Minn., who donated his left kidney to someone he had never met, recalled, "It just felt like the right thing to do for a fellow human being." Similarly, Max M. Zapata of Clovis, Calif., donated a kidney to a stranger, starting a chain of donations that saved the lives of 10 people. For Johnny Orta of Riverside, Calif., his kidney donation was personal: to his identical twin brother Jake at age 16 – one of the rare instances of living donation by a minor.

Among the organ and tissue recipients riding the float, Kara Thio of Cary, N.C., is a healthy and grateful 19-year-old student thanks to a liver transplant she received at the age of eight months. Ashley Anne Quinter of Spring City, Pa. can breathe today because of the lungs she received from boxer Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez. Now 24, Ashley affirms that "because of my hero, Paco, I have a bright future." Two heart recipients, Anthony Robinson of San Francisco and Patricia Navarino-Winters of Tempe, Ariz., have been able to return to work saving others through their careers as a firefighter and labor and delivery nurse, respectively. And Joey Ianiero of Bloomsburg, Pa. will ride alongside Brandon Witt of Sherman, Tex., whom he met through Facebook after Brandon's stepfather Thomas Pettit donated tissue that enabled Joey to return to playing college baseball four months after a devastating knee injury.

Organ and tissue donations save and heal hundreds of thousands of lives each year in the U.S. alone. Today, more than 110,000 candidates are on the national organ transplant waiting list. While donation rates nationwide are at all-time historic highs, due to the rarity of circumstances where organ donation is possible, only about 28,000 organs are transplanted each year. As a result, 18 patients die each day for lack of a donor, making every single donation opportunity precious. A single donor can save the lives of eight people through organ donation, while a single tissue donor can save and heal 50 others through needed heart valves, corneas, skin, bone, and tendons that prevent or cure blindness, heal burns and save limbs.

The 2012 Donate Life float is built by Phoenix Decorating Co. from a design by Dave Pittman and is coordinated by Donate Life America member OneLegacy. The Donate Life float campaign is supported by more than 100 official sponsors from coast to coast, including organ and tissue recovery organizations, tissue banks, state donor registries, transplant centers, hospitals, funeral homes and affiliated organizations. Joining OneLegacy as top-level benefactors are the Dignity Memorial® network, North America's largest network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers; the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB); the Donate Life America; the eWomenNetwork Foundation; and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the National Donor Memorial. All Donate Life float sponsors encourage parade viewers to save lives by registering in their states to be organ, eye and tissue donors and donating blood in their communities.

The Pasadena Tournament of Roses is a volunteer organization that annually hosts the Rose Parade® presented by Honda, Rose Bowl Game® presented by VIZIO and various associated events. The 123rd Rose Parade presented by Honda and themed Just Imagine..., will take place Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, at 8 a.m. (PST) featuring majestic floral floats, high-stepping equestrian units and spirited marching bands. Following the parade, the 98th Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO will kick off at 2:10 p.m. and feature an exciting match-up between two of the top collegiate football teams in the nation. For additional information on the Tournament of Roses please visit the official website at www.tournamentofroses.com.

For information call Rivian Bell, JDI Communications, (213) 612-4927 or Bryan Stewart, (213) 229-5650.