PRESS RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Nicole Plegge, Public Relations Specialist
Phone: 314.428.4373 x 115

Heartland Lions Eye Banks Honors 15 Donors and Recipients on Rose Parade Float

Columbia, Mo. (February 19, 2010) – On January 1, 2010, 15 roses will be placed on the Donate Life New Life Rises Rose Parade float to recognize donors and recipients from Heartland Lions Eye Banks’ seven service areas. New Life Rises celebrates the lives of eye, organ and tissue donors from across the country and those recipients they have blessed with the gift of life. Those recipients honored by the Eye Bank include:

Donors

• Jeremy Kelso, Buffalo, Mo.
• Edith “Cookie” Eddy, Marshall, Mo.
• PDG Lion John Stallings, Catawissa, Mo.
• Brett Wilson, Bolckow, Mo.
• Tyrel Wyrick, Elk City, Kan.
• Kerensa Ward, Vassar, Kan.
• Judy Murphy, Hays, Kan.
• Dr. Thomas Wiss, Springfield, Ill.

Recipients

• Patricia Fairchild, Branson, Mo.
• Sharon Belk, Webb City, Mo.
• Michael Craig, Osage Beach, Mo.
• Dolores Becherer, Festus, Mo. (Mid-America Transplant Services cornea recipient)
• Richard Spencer, Scott City, Kan. (liver transplant recipient)
• Judy Nelson, Overland Park, Kan.
• Betty Bollhorst, Decatur, Ill.

As one of the five largest eye banks in the nation, the Eye Bank retrieved and processed corneas for 2,500 transplants, including 1,135 in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois, in 2008. Thanks to caring eye donors, talented surgeons and the Eye Bank, eyesight is restored to individuals who have lost their vision due to an ocular disease, disorder or injury.

New Life Rises, which marks the donation and transplant community's seventh appearance in the Rose Parade, features a phoenix, the mythical symbol of life coming out of the ashes of death and rising from a bed of flames into the sky. The Donate Life phoenix represents those who give life in their passing and the people whose lives are renewed through transplantation. The bird soars high above the riders who are seated along a replica of the National Donor Memorial's Wall of Names at the headquarters of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in Richmond, Va. Adorning the bird's tail feathers are dozens of floragraphs -- portraits created with floral materials -- of deceased donors who gave life to those in need. In addition, donors across the country will be memorialized in a garden of roses dedicated through the Donate Life Family Circle program, with each rose vial carrying a personal message of love, hope and remembrance.

Coordinated by Donate Life America member OneLegacy, the national Donate Life float campaign is supported by approximately 60 official partners from coast to coast, including organ and tissue recovery organizations, tissue banks, state donor registries, transplant centers and affiliated organizations.

About Heartland Lions Eye Banks
Heartland Lions Eye Banks is a division of the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation, a 501c(3) organization with the mission to preserve and restore the sight of people throughout Missouri and around the world. The Eye Bank operates seven branches throughout Missouri, Kansas and Illinois with headquarters in Columbia, Missouri.  The Eye Bank is one of the five largest eye banks in the U.S. and offers high quality donor cornea tissue to transplant surgeons.  In addition the Eye Bank is committed to research for causes and cures for eye diseases.