UK HealthCare

UK Organ Donor to be Featured in Rose Parade on New Year’s Day

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 17, 2013) — A Mount Sterling man, who upon his death saved and enhanced the lives of many others through organ and tissue donation at the UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital, will be featured on the Donate Life Float in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, Calif., and honored by Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) on Dec. 18 in the UK Chandler Hospital Pavilion A atrium.

Jeff Ballard’s face will be one of 81 donors featured as individual floragraphs on the annual Donate Life Float. The floragraphs are facial images created from natural products such as seeds and petals.

Sponsored by KODA, Jeff’s mother Connie and his daughter Samantha, will travel to Pasadena to help decorate the float. They will bring the floragraph to Kentucky to finish it before sending it back to Pasadena in time for the parade.

Connie will put finishing touches on the floragraph at UK Chandler Hospital on Wednesday, Dec.  18 at 2:30 p.m. in the Pavilion A ground floor atrium. Refreshments will be served.

Since Jeff’s death in 1998, Connie has stitched together 10 quilts made of squares furnished by families to memorialize their loved ones who were donors. KODA displays the quilts throughout the state.

For more information, contact Charlotte Wong, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates: c.wong@kodaorgan.org or 859-351-7777.