Rose Parade’s TV Corner Press Stands Elevated Into Instagram-Worthy Set Piece By Nonprofit OneLegacy

OneLegacy, a federally-designated, nonprofit Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) serving the diverse Southern California region, is again sponsoring this year’s TV Corner – also called The First Mile of the Rose Parade.

As it did last year, OneLegacy will erect a large video screen to West Colorado Boulevard, introduce grandstand pageantry ushering the parade procession eastward, and elevate the iconic press stand into an Instagram-worthy set piece.

For over 20 years, OneLegacy has also supported the Donate Life Rose Parade Float Campaign, a national program of the OneLegacy Foundation supported by more than 100 official sponsors, including organ and tissue recovery organizations, tissue and eye banks, hospitals, transplant centers and affiliated organizations.

Each year, OneLegacy sponsors the Donate Life float in order to provide additional visibility to the importance of organ and tissue donation. For the 2023 Rose Parade, Donate Life will display its float with the theme “Lifting Each Other Up” which will join dozens of floats, marching bands, equestrian units and Tournament entries that will travel down the streets of Pasadena on Jan. 2, 2023.

“This is the representation of organ and tissue donation – how donors lift each other up and lift up and to save the lives of grateful recipients who get a second chance in life, thanks to those who said ‘yes’ to donations,” Tania Llavaneras, a member of the Public Education Team at OneLegacy Foundation, said. “The centerpiece of the float is this majestic Asian street dragon which in Asian culture represents abundance, prosperity, and a good auspicious future.”

Llavaneras said OneLegacy is on track to have another record year of organ donations that could surpass last year’s record. So far, the organization has recorded up to 623 donors and over 1,500 transplants. OneLegacy also opened a new headquarters in Azusa, which will provide a new donor recovery center to facilitate more organ recoveries.

OneLegacy has also recovered over 1,700 corneas which can help restore sight for nearly 2,000 people.

“We’re very grateful for the donors,” Llavaneras said. “We carry through our donor families to make sure we provide them with grief counseling services to continue their journey of losing a loved one. And we’re truly grateful to those donors who said ‘yes’ to donations and who are helping save lives in Southern California.”

With the Donate Life float on Monday, OneLegacy hopes to encourage more and more people to see the importance of organ and tissue donation.

“We want people who look at our float this year to be able to feel inspired about giving that second chance in life to others through organ and tissue donation,” Llavaneras said. “People will be able to see 19 amazing individuals who have either given that gift of life to living donors. And you can also see the transplant recipients. This year we have a couple of heart transplant recipients, kidney recipients, and living transplant recipients, and double lung transplant recipients, who have gained that second chance in life. They were at the edge of death. And thanks to this gift of life, they continue living on.”

OneLegacy started the organ donation community’s participation in the Rose Parade and has since continued helping make the Donate Life float the centerpiece of an annual campaign to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation.

By New Year’s Day, 19 Donate Life float entries will have traveled over 100 miles along the Rose Parade’s legendary route.