Hello, and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast, where we have conversations about Oregon, tissue, and eye donation. I'm Roycee. I'm Joey Boudreau. And I'm Sally Gentry.
The trio back together guys, and I'm so excited. Hey! And we are looking ahead. We're looking forward, Rose Parade 2018, here on this episode of the Gifted Life, to put on something magnificent.
Lots of planning has to go into play. Yes, it does take a lot of planning. And of course, we took part in that, and in the process of surprise to Louisiana families with an amazing gift. That was fun.
And we're going to hear from them, hear what they think about their loved one being on the national, international stage. Which is amazing, because we all watch it. It's easy to do, right? That's something that you can take part in.
So you're going to have your fill right here on the Gifted Life, and we want you to help us spread the word. And you've been doing a pretty good job. Amazing. Now, of course, we had Ghana in the lead for a long time outside of the United States, outside the United States.
But now, Japan has taken the lead and has widened the gap over the last couple months. I don't know if that's because of me, or because now I haven't been here the last couple months. We also got a road trip, so we can always look into that. Oh, that's amazing.
Because you spent Joey's last time going to the race track. Yes. Totally for work, which worked out well. But listen, we appreciate our team members.
That's you listening, helping us spread the word. We try to make it as easy as possible. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Google Play, or whatever your favorite podcast that may be. Yeah, on social media, a lot of what we talk about here, you can see in pictures and you can hear more through what we post there.
So donate life, Louisiana, that's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, we're at DonateLifeLA. And don't forget, you can always give us a call. I'm 048-348-347. That's the hotline.
We may use your audio. We want this to be interactive. We want you to be with us, partner, and let's save lives. I'm excited.
Ready to get started? All right, guys, we told you we were looking ahead. Rose Parade 2018, that'll air and roll January 1st, 2018, but lots of planning that goes into it. You can tell us all about that.
Ms. Kathleen Hostard, she is the DonateLife Rose Parade float manager, big title. Ms. Kathleen, thanks for joining us.
Thank you, Lori, for having me. This obviously is a year-round effort, right? Because it is so wonderful when it rolls. It truly is.
It's a labor of love that we have had with volunteers that come together every year as well as they donate life for a committee to make this incredible event happen. And it really is, it's a magical event. I love the theme of the float. Like how do you guys even start to imagine what's coming up next?
It always seems so perfect. So we actually start with the theme of the parade. So the tournament of Rose has come up with a theme for the parade each year. This year it's making a difference, which, you know, personally, for what we do with the world of Organized Tissue Donation, everyone truly makes a difference with their gifts that they've received or that they've given to the gift of life.
And from that theme, we work with that theme to come up with our own theme for our, which this year is the gift of time. It really is a great way to celebrate the greatest gift, and it also showcases the power that each of us has to help one another. My wife and I, every new year's morning, wake up and eagerly watch the parade, especially to see the donate life float. And you mentioned magic.
You know, it is just a beautiful, beautiful float each and every year. How many man hours go into this? So that's actually the day after the parade, every year we start again. The floats are brought back to the barn after viewing.
Peridiso, who is our float builder, they actually strip all the floats we try and recycle everything that we can due to cost. So we recycle as much as we can, and then our float builder Charles Myers, he is actually our designer. And as soon as we have the theme of the parade, he'll start working on his vision of how he can fit our parade float into Organ Eye and Tissue Donation. And he'll send us a couple of rendering that we get to look at as a committee.
And we actually make a decision of what we think fits best with not only the theme of the parade, but then of course, you know, what we're all doing in the message that we're trying to get out there with the power of donation. So we actually start, we have our first committee meeting in February, and we try and have a design picked and ready to go by end of April. And from there, it is working on actually decorating the float. We've already had our first test ride where you actually take the float out onto the street with the tournament.
We have to have riders on the float making sure that it's safe and sound for everybody, all the mechanics are working and everything. For us, it's fun because we get our first look at it. So this year when we did the test ride, there were no colors on the float yet. The birds were all white, but you can kind of visualize what everything is going to look like.
And then we worked with our float builder. Our first decorating ship is in December. So we actually start the first week of December decorating on the float. And then our floorgraphs are how we honor our deceased owners who have given the gift of life.
Those we actually start decorating in October. And that gives us a great opportunity. We are the ones that actually can take a piece of a float and ship it across the country. So with our floorgraphs, we're able to decorate a loved one's photo.
And then we can ship it back to families who can't come out during October and decorate. And they get to have an event that they would like to on the floorgraph. It's a great opportunity to really take a float and not only have it in Pasadena, but we can ship it across the country and touch so many people. So Kathleen had no idea it was such, you know, basically a year round thing that you guys did.
It has to be. Oh my goodness. But so why do you wait so long, you know, wait until December? It seems like I would get so nervous having to wait that long before we actually decorate.
We do a lot of prep work, but actually everything has to be dry organic materials, fresh materials. So just with the history of the floats, we know if we start at the beginning of December starting before then we take the risk of things not looking as fresh and as good as they should be. So just we take the advice from our float builder. That's where we kind of use his guidance and typically all the floats begin decorating in December.
So Kathleen initially, how did all this begin? And what I mean is going back in time, who decided, well, this would be a great idea to honor organ tissue and eye donors. Was it you all that came up with the idea? There was actually a gentleman and this was a story I'd love to tell because he was one of our dear friends Gary Foxen and his wife Lois.
Gary was a volunteer for One Legacy, our organ procurement organization in Southern California. And Gary was a long recipient. His life had been saved through the gift of a lung transplant. And Gary had worked for the automobile club for 25 years.
And the automobile club had done a float each year and he was a part of that. And so he actually wrote a letter to One Legacy and said, you know, we really should have a float in the parade because it's such a great way to get our message out nationwide worldwide because people watched the float from all over the place. And he was very passionate about seeing this through. He wrote a letter.
He sent it to One Legacy, which said on the company that said on our CEO's desk for a while. And they said, you know, this is something we're really passionate about. We really want to see this through. And they began working with One Legacy to be the producer of the float because somebody has to actually produce the float and run all of everything that goes on with it.
So Gary partnered with One Legacy. They went to the tournament. In order to have a float in the parade, you have to submit an application to the tournament. You have to say why it's compelling.
And you have to actually be accepted into the parade. When the application was submitted, it was received almost immediately from the tournament because they saw the value of the impact of this message. Our first float was in 2003. They had the honor and privilege of watching his dream come to an act.
They'd seen the float very passed away a couple years ago. He actually got to ride on the float as a long way through. Yeah, it was an honor to see him. But it's because of Gary's passion and just his vision to create something that could be so meaningful and also an opportunity like with what we can involve order procurement organizations and families from all across the country.
So it's a great opportunity as a nation to show our methods. How many families will there be this year? So this year we will have 68 families coming out to our either floor graph families who are coming in honor of their loved ones who have been given the gift of life. We have 16 riders who are all recipients of an eye or tissue.
And then we have eight walkers who are either living donors or their recipients as well. So all of them will be coming out on December 29th to the Hilton Pasadena. And we just formed this amazing community at the hotel. We have about 95% of the hotel books.
So it's just we're all there from December 29th through January 2nd. And it really just becomes an incredible home of gratitude, remembrance and celebration. Yeah, we've been able to of course connect with a lot of those that we've sponsored from Lopa from Louisiana and the stories that they tell are just amazing. I can't wait to hear.
The other questions I had talked about how beautiful the float is every year. And I'm going to put you on the spot here, Kathleen. How many flowers? How many flowers?
Makeup points below. I'm going to throw away the tail. That's a great question. And we're actually waiting to hear back from our float designer because he actually gives us what we call a call out book that tells us how many roses, how many of every single individual flower that will be placed on the float.
So we're waiting with a steady breath to get that information from him and while we can actually say what kind of roses, what kind of flowers and the flowers come from all over the world and to walk into a flower tent where all of these flowers are. I mean, just a smell and anything you can see is incredible. Yeah, it's incredible. My goodness.
Now you mentioned roses. This popped into my mind. Lopa actually dedicates a rose for all donors that actually rides on that float. Is that something that others can take part in?
If so, how do we go about that? It is. And thank you for asking. It's such a special part of the float because anybody across the world can take part in it.
They can have a piece. They can be a part of the float on Colorado over on New Year's Day. We have a rose dedication program and you can simply sign on to donatelifefloat.org. A rose dedication program.
Anyone can dedicate a rose with a personal dedication in honor of someone who's given the gift of life, someone who's waiting for the gift of life. And those roses are placed every year on December 29th if families are in the area in the Pasadena area. But every one of those dedications is read by one of our volunteers before it is put on the float away to honor those people who those roses have been dedicated from. And it's just a great way, as I said, for everyone across the country to be involved and be a part of float.
Right. And so tell us the site again. Also, want to tell people where to go to see the rendering of what the float will look like. And then I know sometimes you guys put the floor graphs in a description of who's going to be on that float too, right?
There's a one-stop shop for that. There it is. And so if you're not going to be able to look at the float, you'll be able to look at past histories and our past floats. We're just getting ready to start putting all of our information for this year's honorees.
So by August, September, you'll be able to see all of our honorees read a little capsule about each participant that's riding, walking, or being honored. You can also dedicate a rose and just get some tittry on our float and see this year's rendering a float, which is a gift of time. I love it. Kathleen, you are a wealth of information about this float.
We can't wait to watch it roll January 1st, 2018, but we hear the work that is yet to be done, the progress being made, and then the message that's going to go out. So we thank you. Oh, thank you. Go on.
So I'm glad you'll be happy to have your insight in the company as well. I appreciate it. Well, you've come here to work with companies who are willing to honor their families and bring them out to Pasadena and for our families. You know, some of these families have never been on a plane.
They've never stayed in a hotel. So it's a very eye-opening experience for them. But I can tell you watching these families the four to five days at their hotel, watching the healing that happens. And, you know, for them to be able to meet other families that have been in their same situation or other recipients who are recipients as well, it's such an honor to watch the healing that takes place over the four to five days that we're all together in Pasadena.
It's an incredible opportunity to be a part of. You know, I think that's part of why almost all of us do what we do is just exactly what you've summed up very, very wonderfully. We just love working with families and helping them reconnect to life and to see what they can do to make a difference for everyone. So thank you.
Labor of Lebanon on our part. Well, Kathleen, we'll be sending two of our own families here from Louisiana, from LOPA that will be going. And I'm sure you'll be taking great care of them as well. And we'll be talking to them later on in the podcast.
Right, and we will definitely they will become part of an incredible community when they get here with us in their journey to Pasadena. All right, guys. So we heard about the float. We heard about the parade that's coming up.
We all watch around New Year's Day. But in 2018, there's a special piece of the donate life float that's going to mean a whole heck of a lot to our next guests. Her name is Julie Castile. Hey, Julie.
Hi. Hey, when that float rolls, why will you be watching them? I will be my baby, Blue coming from the P-Says live in next year, January 1st, 2018. He's being honored and he's going to be on the float representing the Louisiana.
And I will be standing on Colorado Boulevard to witness that major event. Yeah, when you say him, we're talking about your hero. His name is Kelly Kerrio with those baby lives. And that's going to be amazing.
And we were all sitting here because Joey and Sally had a chance to watch you learn that this was going to happen. So guys, listen. Well, so we had a ceremony in honor of a lot of our volunteers and also philanthropists throughout the state and those who have had floor graphs basically were in the situation or had the opportunity that Julie has right now. This is our 10th year.
So it was the first time we had all of the floor graphs in the same room at the same time. And every family there honoring their loved one and telling their story about their loved one and about Pasadena and their whole experience. It was just an amazing event. So Julie, you're there and you're thinking you're just attending this event?
You're helping? Right. It's an amazing night showing that you're going to be fizzing anybody. It was.
You guys saw the pictures. I would say you saw when they announced that I'm telling you we're going to be one of the two riders in the upcoming parade. For our listeners who have not been familiar with this each year for the last nine years, LOPA has helped sponsor a family to participate. But this year we changed it up to do something different for the 10th year.
And that was, you know, our committee looked at two families and we're very fortunate for Julie and another one of our heroes to be selected to do so. So it's quite an honor to have you all representing not only your loved one, but also LOPA. The theme of the parade this year for the rose parade is making a difference. And the float is called the gift of time to have Kelly represented.
What does this mean for you, Julie? We're going to be missing him and doing, you know, for his anniversary and we want it to really market and I feel that he can't is going to help us really put him out there and spread his story. Which is incredible, Julie. If you want to see the baby blues that she talks about, tied to Kelly, he's on our heroes page, the LOPA dot org.
And when you talk about spreading his story, that's what you do. You volunteer and I think this will give you a new perspective. When you go out in front of those classes or in those church groups, you'll be able to bring something new to the table. And his story continues even though his death was five years ago.
Exactly. That I get to work and I get to work on his floor bar and I get to be in college with him. Families that are going to be on the float, Christian Nelson. Christian died about six months after Kelly and we've done a lot of things with Christian's parents.
We basically just walk hand in hand with him. So to be able to go to Pasadena with your family and have the two boys fly the float together is another great honor. Wow. And we're going to talk to Christian's parents coming up, but we talked about Kelly, Terrio, Julie's son, Julie's hero.
He'll be the 2018 foreground honoree, one of those. And you can hear more about his story on episode 42 of the gifted life. You can see his picture and you can be there with Julie. Cheer her on and you'll hear more about this journey right here on the podcast.
So we just talked to donor mom, Julie, and she is also proud of Kelly being on that donate life float in 2018. She mentioned another family, Hans and their hero, Christian Nelson. Hans joins us by phone. Hey, Hans.
Hey, how are you guys? Good. And we appreciate you joining us and I'm smiling here because we posted these pictures on Facebook, but you guys went to this event at the local office thought you were just promoting donation, doing good deeds with Christian's legacy that you guys started. And then you heard this news that I don't think you were expecting to hear.
Not at all. It was at lunch time that thing day. So graduation, it was delayed by an hour. It was just going to make it.
And of course, we didn't really know what the biver was. We didn't know there was. We got there about we got it all the way. That was an act.
I was fortunate enough to be standing right next to Genan Hans. And of course, I knew what was coming up and immediately prior to that, a lot of the families were able to talk about the trip. We had all the floor graphs in the same room and sharing their experiences. So it was an emotional, really an emotional time for everyone.
And then when Libby went ahead and started that announcement and I kind of turned and looked at you guys and the expressions were just priceless. It was, I have the goosebumps even thinking about it again. Oh, you know what? So when they announced Kelly was going to be on for Julie like up in that moment and we're so happy for it.
And then, you know, so it's like, I just honored this year and that that that unto itself is amazing. I have a question for you, Hans, the theme of the float for this coming year is the gift of time. What does that mean for you? Just thinking about Christian and everything that you all have been through in these last several years.
Time, unfortunately, like in this circumstance tragedy tragic for our family. And you know, we are very grateful that we had night because we see families that, you know, in similar circumstances or not even total families, just families and generals dealing with losing a lot of them in several days old, several years. Of course, we would have liked to have him for 19 years. We're very important.
We've flipped it around and now we have our spreading this message and creating what we feel will be a lasting life. It's brought a great advocates for donation. And I know just knowing you that you're starting to do your research. You've talked to these veterans who have been to this parade.
So is there a moment? Is there a time? Is there something that you're looking forward to seeing or doing with this experience, this opportunity? You know, as we watched four years ago, we had watched, you look for something now that we may not have seen the same way before.
So we have, you know, seen over the last few years what the float look like and understood the theme from those years, but search now and looking. It's all still kind of overwhelming. And we'll pack in in just a few short days. All sorts of emotional, you know, roller coaster rides as we head out to California there to see our son's image.
Pat is probably along with the makes these days, you know, with the makes you think they're great. The people's famous parade in the United States. This is a huge deal and that to be a focal point, what that to me is as it passes in front of me, we watch it go by. I can't imagine that's going to be a lot.
It's going to be awesome and the parade thing making a difference. That's what you guys try to do in the world of donation every day. Yeah, you know, it's we I've talked to you guys about travel not because we get back to the community. I just don't know if you speak about it.
I suppose the driver's ed class, I got called the night before and they were going to have a lot of work of donation and what to do when you're at the DMV for your driver's permit and the story about why it's important to say yes. And so I was there. I mean, and that's we do that. We realize.
Yeah, we're so glad that you guys are part of the team. Christian Nelson, he was honored in our hero segment here on the gifted life back on episode 11. So you can listen to that. You can also go to our heroes page, lopa.org to see his face to see Hans, gin, their family.
And we're going to continue to follow this story and we know that when you come back from this experience that we'll have you back on so that we can hear it from your perspective. We appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you.
It's going to be amazing. Thank you. Is that time in the podcast where we like to honor a hero? Today's hero is Jennifer Cotton Newman.
Cotton was her nickname. We learned about her from mom and dad. Here's what they say. Our daughter, Cotton, at the young age of 25, decided that she wanted to become an organ donor.
She loved life and told us that if something was to ever happen to her to make sure she could save at least one life. It would make her happy and it would be her last good deed before meeting Jesus. Sad to say two years later, she passed away leaving her three young babies. But she saved five lives.
She sadly missed by her three kids, mother and father. She is our hero because even after death, she still gives the gift of life and that gives us comfort. Last but not least, Cotton loved butterflies and every time we see one, we know it's her. You can see her picture.
You can learn more on our heroes page at Loba.org. At this time, we'd like to pause and say thank you to Cotton for the gift of life. We love interaction, Joe, right? In our question and answer segment, info at Loba.org, we ask people go there with your questions.
We want to know what you're thinking. We want to help you answer those questions. And so this one, we got from a listener. I am a type two diabetic.
What can't I donate and what can I donate? That's a great question, Laurie. Type two diabetes is a type of diabetes that generally the onset is as an adult. Type one usually occurs earlier as a teenager.
You'll see it and that's the one that's more insulin dependent in each case, the pancreas is damaged. So in both cases, you would not be able to donate your pancreas. But it does have some effects with other organs, but there are so many times in most cases, you can donate pretty much everything else. So you can't- Don't know yourself out.
Absolutely. You don't really yourself out your kidneys hard. They do have some effects sometimes, but we do testing on all that beforehand. And most of the time, they're still suitable to be donated for transplant.
All right. There you have it. info at Loba.org if you have a question that you want us to field here on the Gifted Life or give us a call 504-648-3477. We may use your audio on the podcast.
Another episode of the Gifted Life in the Books, guys. That's right. We want to first thank Kathleen, float manager for giving us- It's a big job. That is.
That's a scoop on exactly what it takes to make that donate life roseberry float happen. That's just amazing. Talk about lots of work. And all those man hours, she said thousands, thousands, thousands.
I believe it. I know. A labor of love for all the donor families. It is magnificent though.
When it rolls on January 1st, 2018, we will all be in awe and guess who will also be in shock probably. Yeah. These two families. Yeah.
Thanks so much to Julie and Hans for sharing their thoughts about having their loved ones on the float. This must be so exciting for them. I can hardly wait to see and hear what their feedback is. Yeah.
And for sharing Kelly and Christian with us as well and for spreading that donation message. And look, if you listen today and you got inspired to sign up to be an organ-ion tissue donor to save lives, register me.org is a one-stop shop. You can go there and sign up. It doesn't take a lot of time.
But we do want you to do something today that you don't normally do to help us make life happen. We know you can do it. Be part of the team. This is a production of the Louisiana Organ for Carement Agency, or LOPA.
The gifted life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Buudrow, and Sally Gentry. Our producers are Kirsten Heins and Shalom Caraway. We are recorded, engineered, and mixed in our Metery, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.