About this campaign
All eyes will be on organ and tissue donation at the 134th Rose Parade. With your help, Growing with Grief and SODA have the opportunity to be a part of the celebration!
Every year, Donate Life has a special float at the Rose Parade to promote the life-saving power of organ and tissue donation to the 700,000 people who attend and the 37 million people who tune into the Rose Bowl celebrations. Loved ones of deceased donors, living donors, and recipients can apply to be a part of the float, and this year, we hope to honor Rylee Jackson at the Rose Parade to share her powerful story and encourage others to give the gift of life.
In order to apply to be a part of the Rose Parade and this powerful movement, we are raising $12,000 to sponsor the float. We’re hoping you will join us in saving lives by contributing towards this important initiative!
If our application is not accepted, all money raised will be used by SODA to share stories of organ donation, including Rylee’s, and to save lives through organ and tissue donation advocacy. Learn more about how SODA saves lives at sodanational.org.
About Kyle, Autumn, and Rylee Jackson
Kyle and Autumn Jackson’s first experience with organ donation was both traumatic and healing. When their three and one-half-month-old daughter, Rylee Marie, got what seemed to be a cold, they never expected that less than one week later she would be declared brain dead. At that point, the pain of knowing they would leave the hospital without their daughter was overwhelming; they didn’t want other parents to have to go through a similar loss, so they reached out and asked about organ donation.
When they first talked with the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO), they were told that Rylee’s blood type was rare and would limit potential recipients; that they might not find any. The OPO eventually found potential matches for Rylee’s heart, liver, and kidneys.
However, while they were still verifying the matches, Kyle and Autumn received bad news. The coroner was refusing to release Rylee for donation. While knowing they were losing their daughter was the most devastating thing they’d ever experienced, it wasn’t until the chance to donate Rylee’s organs was taken away that they realized how much being able to donate her organs was helping them. Not by taking away their grief, but by taking away that little bit of comfort they got from knowing somewhere in the world three other people would be given more time. Luckily, with the help of the OPO and Rylee’s doctor, they were able to address the coroner’s concerns, and Rylee was able to give her miracles.
Kyle and Autumn made it a goal of theirs to continue to support organ donation, and educate others on how organ donation benefits those on both sides of it. Autumn has written her memoir, “Boldly into the Darkness: Living with Loss, Growing with Grief & Holding onto Happiness” in order to share her grief journey, including her experience with organ donation, and started her own website providing grief resources at growingwithgrief.com. Through the book, she also connected with SODA and has recently become a member of its board in order to help SODA continue to educate students about the critical need for organ and tissue donation and to encourage organ donor registration.
As Oregon residents and supporters of Donate Life Northwest, Kyle and Autumn are hoping that one way they could continue to promote organ donation and SODA is to share Rylee’s story as part of the Donate Life Rose Parade Float at the 134th Rose Parade on January 1, 2023, in Pasadena.