Four donors from Kern to be honored on Donate Life parade float
| Monday, Dec 07 2009 04:40 PM
Last Updated Monday, Dec 07 2009 05:13 PM
For more information about the Jeffrey Johns golf tournament, visit www.jjslegacy.org.
For biographies of all the honorees, including those from Kern County, visit www.donatelifefloat.org.
For more information on organ donation, visit www.onelegacy.org or www.donatelife.net.
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Jeffrey Johns
Jack Cardinal
Richard LaRue
Trevor Frisch
When 27-year-old Jeffrey Johns died from a head injury in March, his family decided to donate his organs. His mother, Lori Malkin, knew Jeffrey would have wanted to help someone if he could.
And he did. His organs are now living inside five other people, Malkin said.
Johns is one of four donors from Kern County who will be honored on a Donate Life parade float in next year's 121st annual Rose Parade.
"I think it's an honor and it's very comforting," Malkin said of her son being featured in a floragraph on the float.
The float represents Donate Life, an organization that encourages people to be organ donors, and OneLegacy, a non-profit transplant donor network that matches up donors and recipients.
This year's float theme is "New Life Rises." The design features a phoenix rising from ashes to symbolize life emerging from the ashes of death. It represents those who give life in their passing and lives renewed through transplantation.
The other honorees from Kern County are: Jack Cardinal, 76, of Caliente; Richard Larue, 19, of Bakersfield; and Trevor Frisch of Lake Isabella, who was only three days old when he died.
Cardinal died of a heart attack in 2005. His wife, Gladys, donated his organs because she knew it was what Jack would have wanted. Since Jack's death, his family has been involved with decorating the Donate Life float and attending both the Rose Parade and the Donate Life Run/Walk every April at Cal State Fullerton, according to the Donate Life float website.
Larue died in a car accident in 1996. He had decided to become an organ donor only six months before he died by putting the pink donor sticker on his driver's license. Larue's family was able to meet the recipient of his heart and lungs, who lived for 11 years after receiving the transplant.
Frisch was born brain dead in 1998. His heart was given to 11-day-old Hannah Grinnan, who is now 12 years old and will ride along with a portrait of Frisch on the float.
Johns was chosen to be honored with a floragraph because his family is holding a golf tournament in his honor on March 1, 2010. Malkin said all funds raised in the tournament will stay in Kern and will help both donor and recipient families attend events to benefit them.
The tournament will also serve as a reminder for people to register as organ donors and to gain more information about Donate Life.
Bryan Stewart, vice president of communications for OneLegacy, helps build the OneLegacy/Donate Life float. The float, he said, is meant to inspire people to become organ donors.
The portraits of the donors are called floragraphs, although they are not made entirely from flowers. They measure about 12 inches by 16 inches and there will be 76 total floragraphs.
Stewart said the floragraphs are made mostly from chili powder, coffee grounds, rice, onion seed, paprika and other organic materials.
"It's a very unusual art form to say the least," he said.
The families of the deceased person create the floragraphs, which are assembled in Pasadena. The families get to meet each other and share stories of their loved one who became an organ donor.
Donors are selected for a floragraph based on their compelling stories and having family members who have actively volunteered in their community.
Stewart cited the example of a football coach from Ohio who donated tissue to his son's college football teammate.
