“Thanksgiving was always a time for our family to celebrate, until Mike fell,” said Laurie Wolowic, Mike’s sister and the creator and Co-Chair of the Family Circle Rose Dedication Program. “My parents were married on Thanksgiving Day more than 50 years ago, so it was tradition for all ten kids to come back home to Illinois.”

Five years ago, the meaning of Thanksgiving changed for the Wolowics, and for the families of the four transplant recipients who received Mike’s donated organs. When Mike fell from a ladder while doing home repairs during the holiday weekend, his family gave their consent to donate his organs to those in need.

“Thanksgiving is still hard for my family,” Wolowic admitted. “But I remember the four families who are truly thankful for a second chance at life and I hear this incredible gratitude repeated in Family Circle dedications from transplant recipients around the country.”

Now in its third year, the Family Circle Rose Dedication Program expects nearly 2,000 dedicated roses from families and hospitals in all 50 states and around the world will live in the Family Circle Garden on the Donate Life Rose Parade float.

“When someone dies, the family looks for ways to honor that person’s life and legacy,” said Tenaya Wallace, Co-Chair of the Family Circle program and Communications Specialist for OneLegacy, the organ and tissue recovery agency serving the greater Los Angeles community. “Family Circle roses are an extraordinarily meaningful and visible tribute to the generosity of organ donors, to the renewed life of transplant recipients and to the difficult journey of those who wait for a transplanted organ.”

FAMILY CIRCLE PILGRIMAGE TO PASADENA

Family Circle roses are a prominent part of the Donate Life Rose Parade float each year, which is seen by millions on New Year’s Day. This year Mike’s mother, father and wife will journey to Pasadena for the first time to personally place Mike’s roses on the float. They will also watch Laurie walk in the parade carrying a tether to Mike’s “floragraph” – a portrait created in organic material – which will adorn one of the Donate Life float’s four majestic hot air balloons. Mike’s rose will be in the basket just below the balloon on the float, Life Takes Flight.

Coming to Pasadena to place a rose is meaningful to other families as well. With a portion of the program’s funds, the Family Circle Rose Dedication Program held an essay contest for a Family Circle family to win an all-expense-paid ‘Pilgrimage to Pasadena’ to personally place their rose on the Donate Life float and watch the parade in person.

“In the essays we heard that the rose is a meaningful symbol of love, loss and renewal that represents something different to every family. To some it is hope, to others it is grief, and to others gratitude.” said Wolowic. “For essay winner Ellen Alterman of Fairfax Station, Va. the rose represents pure love, and the Family Circle Rose was the perfect tribute to her husband Neil, who became a tissue donor last year.”

Ellen acknowledged that “I know thousands of people will be watching for their dedicated rose on the Donate Life float. I feel so honored that I was chosen to represent these families by making the pilgrimage to Pasadena. Neil gave me red roses for 31 years and now I am giving him a red rose in remembrance of our love and his gifts to others.”

Ellen, who is wheelchair-bound, will travel with her four daughters, whom she and Neil adopted from Mother Theresa in India. “This is a family journey,” Ellen said, “to place our Family Circle rose and to start to move beyond our grief and start celebrating Neil’s life.”

HOSPITALS AND ORGANIZATIONS THANK ORGAN AND TISSUE DONORS

In Missouri, Family Circle roses will bring together two hospitals that have no history of collaboration. “Giving life through organ, tissue and eye donation is a community issue, not a hospital or political issue.” said Linda Dean of Freeman Health System in Joplin, Mo. which will host a joint Rose Celebration with St. John’s Regional Medical Center on Dec. 2. “By dedicating Family Circle roses, Freeman and St. John’s are celebrating the generosity of our entire community.”

Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics and Shawnee Mission Medical Center, also in Kansas, will also honor their donor families and are joined by Southern California hospitals: Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, Huntington Hospital and the University of California, Irvine Medical Center.

“We are in awe of our families who, in a time of crisis, give life to others,” stated Dr. Darren Malinoski of University of California, Irvine Medical Center. “We are thanking and honoring our donors and their families through the Family Circle Rose Dedication Program.”

Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, The James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness, Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF), the Michigan Donor Family Council, New England Organ Bank, and Heart to Heart will also provide families with Family Circle certificates and a replica of the vial that will be placed on the Donate Life float.

INTERNATIONAL ROSES TIE DONATE LIFE FLOAT TO ROSE PARADE THEME

This year, not only will all 50 states be represented in the Family Circle Garden, but more than 20 countries will honor their donors with a Family Circle rose.

“The Family Circle’s international roses illustrate the 2008 Rose Parade theme, Passport to the World’s Celebrations, by showing how organ and tissue donations touch families on every continent,” said Wolowic, who made a personal commitment to reach out to the international community this year. “When I spoke with donation groups from Europe and Asia, I realized that no matter what language you speak or culture you live in, the need for organ and tissue donation is universal and the desire to celebrate our loved ones and their gift of life connects us all.” Among the countries represented in the Family Circle Garden are Germany, Italy, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam.

Family Circle roses can be dedicated until Dec. 27 by going online to the Family Circle section of the float website. There are four dedication levels ranging from $25 to $200, and each personalized dedication is posted to the float website. For more information, contact Laurie Wolowic at (818) 720-6300 or lwolowic@donatelifefloat.org.