A young man named Michael Gilmore should be planning to celebrate the holidays with his family in Helena West Helena, AR this week. Instead, the 24 year old's image?will be a part of the 2012 Rose Parade's "Donate Life Float" as it rolls through Pasadena, CA on January 2, 2012.
The Mid-Southerner is one of 72 people whose portraits will be featured on the float, honoring those who donated vital organs, tissue or eyes so that countless others might have life.
The young man was full of promise, a 2004 honors graduate of West Helena High School where he had played football, ran track and participated in the JROTC. After high school, ?Michael enrolled at Phillips Community College where he earned his Associates Degree and began dreaming of a career.
A gifted athlete, Michael headed to Jonesboro to earn a degree in Physical Education at Arkansas State University. He juggled his studies, a part-time job at Wal-Mart and a regular referee gig for ASU's intramural sports. Life looked good for the fun loving college student who should have graduated from ASU in December 2010. ?But in a case that has baffled police, Michael was found dead of a gunshot wound in his Jonesboro apartment on April 17, 2010. The case remains unsolved. Police have no suspects.
Michael's body was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis where the Gilmore family gathered and confirmed the shocking news. Michael Deon (Rudy) Gilmore was gone. But Michael's mother, Jerlene Gilmore, remembered her son applying for a drivers license and deliberately deciding to sign up for organ donation.
"Why shouldn't I?, I won't need them," Jerlene recalls her son saying. ?
Michael kept a journal which contained the following entry, "the meaning of my life is to help others. I don't have a doubt in my mind that I was put here to help people some way or some how." ?
Michael's journal entry became more prophetic than he could ever have realized. Two of the people who received Michael's vital organs united with his family at Phillips Community College this week to create Michael's "Floragraph," a portrait created with floral materials. Sammy Robinson received Michael's heart; Verna Harris of Memphis received one of Michal's kidneys. They helped decorate Michael's posterized photograph, a floral image that will be affixed to the Donate Life Float and appear before a television audience estimated at more than 47 million at the Rose Parade.
Jerlene Gilmore and Michael's brother Demarcus and sister Kaneisha will travel to Pasadena to witness the moment and honor their loved one's life. ?
In addition to the images, the Donate Life Float will feature 28 living riders, representing donors, transplant recipients and transplant candidates on the waiting list. ??
Randa Lipman, Community Outreach Manager of the Mid-South Transplant Foundation, Inc. has worked hard to tell Michael's story as a means of encouraging more people to sign up for organ donation.
Ms. Lipman said, ?"the main thing we need to do is tell people to register on the Organ and Tissue Donor Registry in their state. Your many viewers?in the Mid-South, can go to our website: www.midsouthtransplant.org and they?ll find links to the Registry?s in TN, AR & MS. People can register every time they get or renew their driver?s license, permit or state ID. They?ll also find the facts about donation as well as myths and misconceptions explained there so they can make an informed decision for themselves and then share that decision with their family."
The Donate Life Float will also carry thousands of roses with personal dedications of love and remembrance in a unique Dedication Garden supported by people around the world---even places far from the parade route like Helena West Helena, AR. ??
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