Each year since 2004, the Donate Life float in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day has featured the powerful and life-saving message of organ, eye, and tissue donation. This year, the float will have a connection to Osceola County.
The Donate Life float will feature a floragraph of an organ donor who gave the gift of life to transplant recipients from across the country. Floragraphs are seeded portraits of the donors, fitting with the Rose Parade theme/requirements.
That floragraph will be of Linda Couch, a Kissimmee teenager who was hit by a car as she was crossing US 192 at the Bill Beck Blvd intersection in Kissimmee, January 22, 1999. She sustained a severe head injury which resulted in brain death. Her dad (Larry Couch, now deceased) and her mom Diana, who is in Pasadena helping decorate the float, told the doctors that they wanted to donate Linda’s organs, even before they were asked. The subject of becoming organ and tissue donors had been previously discussed within the family, including Linda, so Linda’s mother and father knew what needed to be done, even amid the terrible tragedy they were going through.
Our Legacy (a local organ procurement organization) nominated Linda to be included on the 2022 Donate Life float and sponsored her mother’s trip to Pasadena where she will take part in events with other donor families from around the country leading up to the parade. The donor families will watch the parade from the grandstands.
“I am proud to share Linda’s story and to see her honored on the float… and excited to meet up with my mom and family who will join me in watching the parade in person. Volunteering with Our Legacy gives me an opportunity to be Linda’s mom,” Linda’s mother Diane told Positively Osceola.
Anyone interested in more information about becoming an organ donor can visit www.donatelife.net or www.donatelifeflorida.org/register.
