It’s a moment. A moment when someone dies. A moment when a decision is made. A moment when someone is given the gift of new life. Those moments of laughter, tears, heartache and joy were celebrated during the Donate Life Rose Dedication Ceremony on Wednesday, November 3 at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster.
This is the 10th year that Community Healthcare System has been one of the sponsors of the Donate Life float. On Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, the float will carry donor families, living donors and transplant recipients as part of the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, CA. The float theme is “Courage to Hope.” To prepare the roses that help to create the float, Community Healthcare System holds a corresponding Rose Dedication Ceremony to honor local donors, transplant recipients and their family members. It celebrates the love shared by those who took a moment to register to be organ, eye and tissue donor with a simple rose. It is a moment when the donors’ names are read and the families know their loved ones are remembered and honored for their generosity.
Throughout the year, the hospitals of Community Healthcare System: Community Hospital, Munster, St. Catherine Hospital, East Chicago, St. Mary Medical Center, Hobart and Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center, Crown Point, partner with Gift of Hope and VisionFirst to raise awareness regarding eye, organ and tissue donations. The hospitals’ staff hosted the first Donate Life Rose Dedication ceremony to provide yet another opportunity to honor donors and their families and thank them for their kindness and courage.
Rose ceremony coordinator and IRB/Bio-Ethics director Jana Lacera said, “These dedicated roses and their tributes they carry add special meaning, not only for the families of our donors, but serve to inspire others to become organ, eye and tissue donors as well,” she said.
When someone becomes a donor at one of the four Community Healthcare System hospitals, the family receives a Donate Life garden flag and a thank you card for their family’s gift. The hospital then flies a Donate Life flag for 48 hours in memory of the donor.
The donor families and transplant recipients also are invited to the Donate Life Rose Dedication Ceremony in November. Attendees are encouraged to sign a vial that will hold a rose on the float. Words of love are written on the vials that are read by volunteers in Pasadena before being placed in the float’s memorial garden. Lacera was able to place a rose on the 2014 float in honor of her father.
As part of the dedication ceremony in Munster, a rose is accepted by the donors’ families or friends. Recipients also are given a rose. A short story or memory about the donor is read and their picture is shown on video while the family member receives the rose. Fifty-two donors and transplant recipients were remembered on Wednesday.
Honored guests for the evening, Vivian and Larry Lefferts, talked about their son, John. John Lefferts died unexpectedly in 2004. The couple knew about donation, but it did not really hit home until they were faced with the decision to donate their son’s tissues and corneas.
“When we were cleaning out his apartment, we found a Gift of Hope bumper sticker for organ and tissue donations,” Larry Lefferts said. “We knew we did the right thing,”
“He was that friend who would do anything for his friends,” Vivian Lefferts said. “It was obvious that he is the one who thought about donating. We knew it was his spirit.”
“He wasn’t able to be an organ donor, but he was able to enhance the lives of 37 people,” Vivian Lefferts said.
Vivian and Larry Lefferts keep the memory of their son alive by working with Donate Life and Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network.
Trevor Bradtke, a middle school science teacher, received a double cornea transplant after a diagnosis of keratoconus. The condition affects person’s vision by causing the corneas to become misshapen.
“Now my vision is good,” Bradtke said. “I’m getting glasses or contacts, but for the first time, since I was in middle school, I will be able to see. The (corneas) changed my life. I needed corneas, and if it weren’t for two different people in this world, I wouldn’t be able to see now.”
Bradtke commended the donors, who made it possible for him to continue to work and thrive. He said that he did not realize that he was not able to see people’s faces until he received the transplants.
“Your gift lives on in people like me,” Bradtke told those gathered at the Rose Dedication Ceremony. “Donation changes lives.”
For more information about Community Healthcare System programs and services, visit www.COMHS.org.
