Two Iowans Will Be Honored on Float in 2024 Rose Bowl Parade

Every year since at least 2017, a national organization has placed a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, to shine light on a huge need.

On New Year's Day 2024, two Iowans will be honored on the OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade Float.

A floragraph of Dominic Ogden of Des Moines will be on the float. Ogden, an organ and tissue donor who lives on through five families, died in 2020.

Melissa Nelson of Bettendorf will be riding on the float. She was the recipient of a pancreas transplant four years ago.

Nelson, her family, and Ogden's family will all be going to Pasadena to help decorate the float and see the parade in person. A donation to the Iowa Donor Network by the Gerdin Family Foundation will cover the travel expenses of the two families.

In the 2023 parade, Emily Bohnsack (below left) and Amanda Wilken (below right) were honored posthumously with floragraphs on the OneLegacy float. Bohnsack, of Wilton, and Wilken, of West Des Moines, were killed in automobile accidents in 2010 and 2018.

This is video of the OneLegacy float in the 2023 Rose Bowl Parade.

The theme of the 2024 float (rendering below) is "Woven Together: The Dance of Life." It "celebrates the power of organ, eye and tissue donation, with donors and recipients working together to support one another."

As of this writing, the Iowa Donor Network says there are currently 637 Iowans waiting for an organ transplant. You can register as an organ, tissue, and eye donor here. You can donate monetarily here.