Olathe Organ Donor to be Honored in 2024 Rose Parade® on Jan. 1

Kansas City, KS., Dec. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Midwest Transplant Network will honor 14-year-old organ donor Jayme Sue Louque of Olathe, Kansas, in the 2024 Rose Parade®. Her parents, Wendy and Bryan Louque, and their family will attend the parade activities in Pasadena, Calif. The OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float will feature a floragraph portrait of Jayme Sue, among other donor hero floragraphs. The 135^th Rose Parade® will air on television Monday, Jan. 1 at 10 a.m. CST on ABC, NBC and Univision.

Parade Honoree
Jayme Sue Louque lived a life full of agape love and pure joy. She was an eighth grader who enjoyed music, dance and theater. She was active in her school’s choir and theater program. She was born with Dandy-Walker syndrome and spent much of her life in and out of the hospital, but despite her disabilities, her family provided as much of a normal life as possible. In November 2021, at age 14, she suffered a catastrophic cardiac arrest and was declared brain dead several days later.

The decision to donate Jayme Sue’s organs was easy for her parents. Her mom is a living kidney donor, and her dad is a two-time kidney transplant recipient. Jayme Sue’s lungs, intestines, liver, kidneys and pancreas helped save the lives of five people, and her gift of life-enhancing tissue and corneas helped many more.

Parade Float
For more than 20 years, the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float has inspired people across the country with the powerful message of organ, eye and tissue donation. The 2024 Rose Parade® theme, Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language, illustrates how in a world of different cultures, beliefs, hopes and dreams, one language unites us all – music.

The OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float, Woven Together: The Dance of Life, features a Hopi butterfly dancer with traditionally woven baskets of corn and fruit. The Butterfly Dance is a ceremonial social dance for young Hopi people to celebrate the corn harvest.

All Rose Parade® floats must be covered with flowers or other natural materials such as leaves, seeds or bark. Each year, the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float features numerous floragraphs that replicate photographs, but are made entirely of organic materials, remembering donors from across the nation.

Learn More
Journalists can find more information about the Rose Parade®, the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float and the honoree’s bio and photos from Midwest Transplant Network’s media kit.

Media Interviews
Interviews with the Louque family or Midwest Transplant Network staff can be coordinated in the days leading up to the event or after the parade. Interviews can be done by phone, email or virtually. To coordinate an interview, please contact Nez Savala, APR, Director, Community Engagement and Public Relations, Midwest Transplant Network, at [email protected] or 913-574-7955.

ABOUT MIDWEST TRANSPLANT NETWORK
Midwest Transplant Network has been connecting lives in Kansas and western Missouri for more than 50 years. More than 7,500 organ donors from Midwest Transplant Network’s donor service area have contributed to over 28,000 lifesaving transplants since Midwest Transplant Network’s inception in 1972. Additionally, more than 24,000 tissue donors have given gifts in this timeframe, enabling more than two million life-enhancing tissue transplants for burn victims, cancer survivors, individuals with sports-related injuries and more.

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Nez Savala
Midwest Transplant Network
913-261-7355
[email protected]