Elk Grove Couple Decorates Rose Parade Float

Kathy Seatris never misses the Rose Parade.

Every year, she and her husband watch the New Year’s Day parade on TV, admiring the colorful, floral floats as they wend their way through the streets of Pasadena.

This year, however, they have a vested interest.

The Elk Grove couple spent a Saturday early in December helping to decorate the 2012 Donate Life float, transforming the metal framework into a floral display of clocks and clock towers from around the world.

“I always watch the parade,” Kathy Seatris said. “I love it.”

So when her husband, Mike, a Department of Motor Vehicles computer specialist, received a company email calling for decorating volunteers, he submitted their names.

A few weeks later, they were selected to go to Pasadena.

But Kathy Seatris had a more personal reason for wanting to help.

 “The theme was donating life,” she said. “My brother had a kidney transplant in 2009 and so it was very personal for me.”

Seatris’ brother, who lives in Iowa, had a hereditary kidney disease that their mother and sister also suffered from.

“He was fortunate enough to get a transplant, and his wife was his donor,” Seatris said.

The Seatrises and volunteers from other agencies and non-profit groups, spent Dec. 3 at a special warehouse for parade floats in Pasadena, painstakingly decorating the clock-themed float.

“The theme for this particular float was, ‘One More Life,’ because if you give blood or organs, you’re giving someone one more day,” Seatris said.

The float features six timepieces as well as 72 floral portraits of deceased donors. The float will also have a rose garden honoring more than 3,000 donors from around the world. A 33-foot clock tower with a rotating sun and moon dial will anchor the float.

“Everything visible has to be organic, and so every part someone might see, even if you look under the carriage, has to be covered with organic material,” Seatris said. “So it is very time consuming and very tedious, and they like it to be perfect, so you have to be very careful.”

The stakes were particularly high since the Donate Life float has won awards for the last few years.

“My husband and I were very worried our technique was not going to be up to their standards,” she said. “I guess we were okay, because they didn’t kick us out.”

The Seatrises were tasked with covering parts of the float with clover seeds by scooping up small batches with a sponge and wiping them on the surface.

“They’re very teeny, tiny little seeds,” Seatris said. “You’d think that it wouldn’t be too tough, but my gosh, it’s very difficult to get the seeds on nice and smooth so they don’t bunch up.

“If they goop up, you have to take it off because you don’t want any bulbs – just nice, smooth layers. My husband was actually better at it than I was.”

Anxiety aside, Seatris said she’s hoping to volunteer again next year.

This will be Donate Life’s ninth Rose Parade float, a visual campaign aimed at inspiring people to become organ donors.

The Donate Life float is sponsored by more than 100 groups nationwide, including organ and tissue recovery organizations, tissue banks, state donor registries, transplant centers, hospitals and funeral homes.

For more information about the Donate Life Rose Parade float, or to purchase a rose for the float, go to www.donatelifefloat.org.

The Rose Parade, usually held on New Year’s Day, is scheduled for Jan. 2 this year in accordance with its “never on a Sunday” tradition.