David Compton, an organ donor at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, believed it was important to find a passion that puts a smile on your face in the morning, his family said. He had a diverse group of passions, including writing, cars and motorcycles.
Compton was 25 when he died and became an organ donor on April 27, 2014. This year marked his 10-year anniversary — and his legacy will soon be honored for the world to see.
Long Beach Medical Center staffers and physicians, and Compton’s family gathered for a ceremony on Friday, Dec. 20, to unveil a floragraph – or floral photograph – made in his honor that will be featured in the 2025 Rose Parade.
In partnership with OneLegacy – the nation’s largest organ procurement organization – Compton and many other donors’ floragraphs will symbolize the profound generosity and life-saving impact of organ donation, MemorialCare officials said.
Nationwide, more than 46,000 organ transplants were performed in 2023 using organs from both dead and living donors. This marks the 12th consecutive record-setting year for transplants in the United States, according to OneLegacy.
“On average, a single organ donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and can potentially improve the lives of an additional 75 people by donating tissues,” Dr. Joe Kim, chief medical officer at Long Beach Medical Center, said during the ceremony.
“David’s legacy is a lasting inspiration, urging others to make the same life-changing choice that offers new beginnings and second chances,” Kim said. “As we approach the 2025 Rose Parade, we are reminded of the profound legacy David leaves behind – a legacy that will be beautifully honored through the floragraph his family completes today.”
The ceremony underscores the nearly two-decade partnership between Long Beach Medical Center and OneLegacy. Together, the organizations work to raise awareness about the lifesaving and life-enhancing impact of organ and tissue donation.
Compton’s family members, former nurses and care team applied the finishing touches on his floragraph, which is made entirely out of organic materials and will be featured on the OneLegacy Donate Life float entitled, “Let Your Life Soar,” which will be in the 136th Rose Parade on New Year’s Day.
The “Let Your Life Soar” float honors millions of people touched by organ, eye and tissue donations, including living donors, donor families, transplant recipients and transplant candidates.
While the 2025 Rose Parade theme is “Best Day Ever,” for donor families, having a loved one die represents one of the most difficult moments of their lives. But organ, eye and tissue donations bring a ray of hope that their loved ones live on in others. And for transplant recipients, donations give them bittersweet feelings of happiness for receiving the gift of life, gratitude to their donor and grief for the donor family’s loss, OneLegacy said.
“When we heard the theme for the 2025 Rose Parade, we all came together and said, ‘How can we best represent our donor communities, our donor families, within this Rose Parade,’” said Javier Munoz, regional manager of hospital partnerships at OneLegacy, “and we picked the theme of, ‘Let Your Life Soar.’”
The float features a vibrant scene inspired by the Japenese celebration of Children’s Day. Colorful koi nobori – flying fish flags – or windsocks shaped like fish, made of flowers and organic material, will fly overhead. The scales of the koi fish will highlight the memorial floragraphs representing donors such as Compton.
In Japan, koi fish represent strength, courage and health. These same attributes define not only those who chose donate organs, but also their families and their recipients, officials said.
The theme felt particularly poignant to Compton’s family, as they recalled that he had a tattoo of koi fish on his arm. Though this personal detail was known only to those closest to him, his family found it deeply meaningful that the year he was chosen to be honored coincided with such a profound and symbolic theme.
The hope for the Donate Life Rose Parade float is to inspire viewers to help the more than 1 million people in need of organ, eye or tissue transplants each year, according to OneLegacy.
During the ceremony, members of Compton’s care team stepped forward to write personal messages on vials that will hold roses on the float. OneLegacy’s float is the only one in the Rose Parade permitted to incorporate paper, symbolizing the profound significance these messages hold within the community, Munoz said.
Compton was extremely passionate about always doing the right thing, and to him, organ donation was the right thing to do, his family said. The famile can confidently say his only hope would be that any recipient of the gift of life would go out and find that one thing that makes them smile in the morning – their passion.
“It is an incredible honor to remember my son in this way,” said his father, Dewey Compton. “David had such a giving heart, and David’s greatest and final gift was one of life and hope. To see his image displayed on the OneLegacy Rose Parade float is a powerful reminder of the impact he continues to have.”
To register to become a donor, visit OneLegacy.org/register or registerme.org.
