ITASCA, IL--(Marketwired - Jan 2, 2014) -  Schererville, Ind. resident Linda Ramos (back row R) waves to 2014 Rose Parade spectators while riding the Donate Life Float on New Year's Day. Ramos, a pancreas and sclera transplant recipient and Advocates for Hope volunteer for Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, represented the Illinois and northwest Indiana donation advocacy communities during yesterday's Tournament of Roses festivities. Also pictured (from L-R) are transplant recipients Brian Gilliam (TX), Faith Carlin (PA), Richard Perez (NY) and Gregory Welsh (AZ).

Teddy Deterding, a young donor from White Heath, Ill., also was honored on the float with a floragraph portrait (lower left corner of lantern on left). After his tragic death at age 11 in 2000, Deterding gave life to a California woman through organ donation and gave sight to an Ohio resident through cornea donation. (Photo courtesy of Donate Life America)

About Gift of Hope
 Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network is a not-for-profit organ procurement organization entrusted by the nation's healthcare system with coordinating organ and tissue donation and providing donor family services and public education in Illinois and northwest Indiana. Since 1987, it has coordinated donations that have saved the lives of nearly 20,000 organ transplant recipients and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of tissue transplant recipients. As one of 58 organ procurement organizations that make up the nation's organ and tissue donation system, Gift of Hope works with 180 donor hospitals and serves 12 million residents in its donation service area. To learn more about organ, eye and tissue donation, or to register as an organ and tissue donor, visit GiftofHope.org.