Kathleen McAleese

Staff Writer

Katie Enos was a beloved friend, daughter, sister, and classmate. After Katie died, she donated several of her organs to people in need. Her family recalls that Katie thought it would be ridiculous for someone to waste their organs if someone out there needed them.

Katie was killed after a car struck her on June 29, 2010.  After her organs were donated, four people’s lives changed drastically for the better.

Katie was pictured in the Donate Life Rose Parade float, which is a float that remembers organ donors, both alive and deceased, who have donated their organs to save a life. Katie met all the requirements for being pictured on the float, being that she was a deceased organ donor. The Rose Parade took place on January 2, 2012 prior to the Rose Bowl, a historic college football game.

The theme for the parade was “Just Imagine…” and Donate for Life represented this as “Just imagine… one more day.” The float was in the shape of a clock, representing both the passing of another day and the lifetime that the donors have been able to elongate after their own passing. Katie was shown at the twelve.

Katie, like all other organ donors on the float, was pictured in a florograph, a picture made up of all organic materials. Katie was joined on the float with seventy other florographs of organ donors, and twenty-eight organ families, families of the receiving organs.

In the parade were ninety one attractions, such as bands, walkers, and dancers, forty one of which were floats. All of them were going along with the theme of “Just imagine…”

The Rose Parade proved to be much more than a football game, as it was both a celebration of past, and present lives, all touched by the generosity of a donor.