Rose vial signed by hospital to be included on OneLegacy Donate Life float
For 22 years, the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float has inspired people across the country to save and enhance lives with the powerful message of organ, eye and tissue donation. The 2025 Rose Parade® theme, “Best Day Ever,” celebrates life’s best moments – those unexpected times that bring a smile, warm our hearts and fill us with joy. While for organ donor families, losing a loved one represents one of the most difficult moments of their lives, organ, eye and tissue donation brings a ray of hope to see their loved ones live on in others. For transplant recipients, organ donation gives them bittersweet feelings of happiness for receiving the gift of life, gratitude to their donor and grief for the donor family’s loss.
HaysMed is proud to partner with Midwest Transplant Network in dedicating a rose vial that will be placed on the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float, “Let Your Life Soar.” The float features a vibrant scene inspired by the beloved Japanese celebration of Children’s Day. Colorful koi nobori (flying fish flags), or windsocks shaped like fish, fly overhead. Streamers bear a family crest, followed by the koi nobori in a sequence representing father, mother and children in order of birth. The scales of the fish are memorial floral portraits – floragraphs – of organ donor heroes who gave the gift of life. The windsocks soar over a garden of flowering trees, stone lanterns and a beautiful bridge.
All Rose Parade® floats must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark. The OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float features numerous floragraphs, which replicate photographs but are made entirely of organic materials, remembering donor heroes from across the country.
Donor Hero Floragraph Honoree
OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float co-sponsor Midwest Transplant Network’s floragraph on the 2025 float will honor organ donor Joe Hecht of Sturgeon, Missouri.
Joe was 38, a son, husband and father who died after a senseless act of gun violence in July 2020. He donated his kidneys at MU Health Care in Columbia, Mo., saving the lives of two people. Growing up, his mother, Sheila Hecht, served in the Navy. They lived in Florida and Washington, experiencing the world along the way. Baseball, working on cars and “California Love” by Tupac were his vibe. He enjoyed a life of adventure with his wife, Melissa, taking trips to the Amazon rainforest and Machu Picchu in Peru. Joe loved being outside with their young daughters, Elena and Isabelle.
“We are proud of Joe’s legacy as an organ donor. We always talk about daddy. He’s a hero. We are thankful to be invited to represent Joe at the Rose Parade®. It’ll be a wonderful memory for our family,” said Melissa Hecht.
The Hechts will travel to Pasadena, Calif., for parade events hosted by OneLegacy, the organ procurement organization of southern California.
Rose Vial Dedications
The OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float includes individual roses encased in vials with unique messages from some of Midwest Transplant Network’s hospital and community partners.
HaysMed works closely with Midwest Transplant Network to facilitate organ, eye and tissue donation, and we are honored to dedicate a rose vial to Donors of HaysMed.
A rendering of the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float, “Let Your Life Soar”
HaysMed is proud to partner with Midwest Transplant Network in dedicating a rose vial that will be placed on the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float, “Let Your Life Soar.” Photo includes Eddie Herrman, HaysMed CEO, Kim Wiles, HaysMed OR/PACU, Nikki Dixon, Midwest Transplant Network Hospital Services Coordinator, and Heidi Gohl, HaysMed Vascular Access, Key Contact.
About HaysMed
Hays Medical Center (HaysMed) is a private, not-for-profit, 200+ bed hospital providing the only tertiary-level services in the region. As the premier provider in western Kansas for specialized care, HaysMed offers a wide variety of specialty programs including cardiology, orthopedics, cancer, surgery (general, minimally invasive and robotic), ENT, pulmonology, critical care and women’s services. HaysMed is a Level III Trauma Center and a certified Primary Stroke Center.
Other services include rehabilitation, hospice, neonatal, intensive care and diagnostic imaging, as well as a Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center and a Sleep and Neurodiagnostic Center. HaysMed is proud to be one of only 20 U.S. hospitals recognized by Vizient in 2023 as a Top Performer in the Complex Care Medical Center cohort. In 2022, HaysMed was named as one of the top 20 rural and community hospitals in the country by the National Rural Health Association. Learn more at haysmed.com.
About Midwest Transplant Network
Midwest Transplant Network has been connecting lives in Kansas and western Missouri since 1973. As a federally certified, not-for-profit organ procurement organization, MTN works with organ, eye and tissue donors, their families, hospitals, and other professional partners to extend legacies, provide hope and give life. More than 7,000 organ donors from MTN’s service area have contributed to over 32,000 lifesaving transplants. Additionally, more than 23,000 tissue donors have given gifts, enabling nearly 250,000 life-enhancing tissue transplants for burn victims, cancer survivors, individuals with sports-related injuries and more.
In 1972, donor heroes from Midwest Transplant Network’s service area saved the lives of 12 people with an organ transplant. In 2023, that number was 988, illustrating the thoughtfulness of people in Kansas and western Missouri; the strong support from MTN’s hospital and community partners; and MTN’s commitment to continual improvement and saving more lives.
