The Float Will Celebrate the Power of Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation, Featuring Dozens of Organ, Eye and Tissue Donors, Recipients and Living Donors on New Year’s Day

OneLegacy announced today the theme of their 2025 OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade^® float. The float will join dozens of floats, marching bands, and equestrian units participating in the iconic 136^th Rose Parade^® on New Year's Day in Pasadena, California.

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The 2025 OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade float's theme, "Let Your Life Soar" is inspired by the beloved Japanese celebration of Children's Day and features traditional koinobori, or flying fish windsocks. (Graphic: OneLegacy)

Ed Morales, the current Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association President, has chosen the 2025 Rose Parade theme, "Best Day Ever!" This theme is a celebration of life's best moments – those unexpected times that bring a smile, warm our hearts, and fill us with joy. While for donor families, losing a loved one represents one of the most difficult moments of their lives, organ, eye, and tissue donation brings a ray of hope. It allows them to see their loved ones live on in others, creating a legacy that continues in transplant recipients.

The OneLegacy Let Your Life Soar float showcases the Japanese culture and the tradition of Children's Day, or Kodomo no Hi in Japan. Children's Day occurs during Golden Week, a collection of four national holidays celebrated within seven days and one of Japan's three busiest holiday seasons. Families raise their carp-shaped windsocks in Japan, which have been flying for generations. In Japan, the koi fish represent strength, courage, and health. These same attributes define not only those who chose to give the gift of life, but also their families and their recipients. Koi fish are also believed to represent perseverance, stemming from an ancient legend of a golden carp that swam upstream. The entire donation and transplantation community exemplifies perseverance, from the families that carry on the legacy of their loved ones, to the medical community that tirelessly dedicate their lives to donation and transplantation. The 2025 OneLegacy Donate Life Float honors tradition, family, and love within the donation and transplantation community.

The 2025 OneLegacy Donate Life float, Let Your Life Soar, features a vibrant scene inspired by the beloved Japanese celebration of Children's Day. Colorful Koi No Bori (Flying Fish Flags), or windsocks shaped like fish, fly overhead. Streamers bear the family crest, followed by Koi No Bori in a sequence representing father, mother, and children in order of birth. On the OneLegacy float, the koi fish scales will highlight memorial floral portraits or floragraphs, representing donors who gave the gift of life. The windsocks will soar over a garden of flowering trees featuring stone lanterns and a beautiful bridge. Organ, eye, and tissue recipients will ride on the float, sharing their gratitude for their donors' gift of life. Living donors will walk alongside the float, showing the power of living donation.

Award-winning float designer Charles Meier created the beautiful design that honors this quintessential Japanese celebration. The team at Fiesta Parade Floats, led by Tim Estes, will bring the float to life under the direction of the OneLegacy Donate Life float's new crew chief, Travis Woodward. Every year, more than a thousand volunteers spend countless hours decorating the float with organic materials from October through December, with the goal of finishing it for its journey down the streets of Pasadena on New Year's Day.

"We look forward to showcasing the imagery and message of this traditional Japanese celebration and sharing the remarkable and meaningful stories of donors, who have chosen to make their lives 'soar' by giving transplant recipients lifesaving gifts, so that their lives may soar again," said Tom Mone, Chair of the OneLegacy Donate Life float's committee and Chief External Affairs Officer of OneLegacy, the nonprofit organ, eye, and tissue recovery organization serving the greater Los Angeles area. "This is a tradition for the organ donation and transplantation community that is in its 22^nd year. We are excited to share our beautiful float with the world and honor the power of organ, eye, and tissue donation while celebrating the Japanese culture on the 2025 Rose Parade on New Year's Day."

The OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade float is produced by OneLegacy and made possible thanks to dozens of donation, transplantation, healthcare, and family care organizations from across the country, who join OneLegacy to sponsor our float every year, and individuals who help make donation and transplantation possible.

As the world's most visible campaign to inspire organ, eye, and tissue donation, the OneLegacy Donate Life float in the Rose Parade, presented by Honda, is a powerful reminder of the impact each individual can make. By registering today to become an organ, eye, or tissue donor, you can potentially save or enhance the lives of over one million people in need of transplants each year. Your decision to donate is a testament to the power of community and the value we place on life.

Visit www.onelegacy.org/register or Registerme.org for those outside of California to register as a donor and help save and heal lives.

About OneLegacy

OneLegacy is the nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ, eye and tissue donation in seven counties in Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Kern. It serves more than 200 hospitals, 9 transplant centers, a diverse population of 20 million donors and families across the region and waiting recipients across the country. Becoming an eye, organ or tissue donor is easy and can be done by registering online at donateLIFEcalifornia.org/OneLegacy or by “checking YES” at your local DMV. For more information, visit OneLegacy.org

About the Pasadena Tournament of Roses^® and Rose Parade^® presented by Honda

The Pasadena Tournament of Roses^® is a volunteer organization that hosts America’s New Year Celebration^® with the Rose Parade^® presented by Honda, the Rose Bowl Game^® presented by Prudential and a variety of accompanying events. The Association’s 935 Members supply more than 80,000 volunteer hours, which will drive the success of the 136^th Rose Parade, themed “Best Day Ever!,” on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, followed by the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the 111^th Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential. Visit www.tournamentofroses.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and YouTube.

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