Tournament of Roses Parade carries special meaning for Valley family

Four people are alive because of Dan Gromada Jr.’s organ donation.

By ALISON KEMP

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

A CANFIELD HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE will be flying on a hot-air balloon at the annual Tournament of Roses Parade on Tuesday.

Dan Gromada Jr. will be honored with a floragraph on the Life Takes Flight float, which is showcasing 40 organ donors, 24 organ recipients and eight donor family walkers.

The float has four hot-air balloons that are covered with the floragraphs — pictures made out of flowers — of the donors. The recipients will be riding the float.

Gromada Jr. was an organ donor in 2004 after dying from a motorcycle crash. He was 19.

His parents, Dan and Elaine Gromada, and siblings Rachel, Anthony and Jim left for Pasadena, Calif., on Friday. Dan and Elaine Gromada will help finish decorating the float when they arrive.

The Gromadas learned in August their son would be on the float. Dan Gromada said he started to cry when he found out about the float.

“Oh, what an honor,” he said. “I’m in amazement, really.”

Elaine Gromada said she has been overwhelmed with the entire process. She is glad that something good has come from something bad.

“This is the biggest parade, the largest parade in the world. Words can’t describe it. I mean, the world’s biggest parade and your son’s being honored on the float,” Dan Gromada said.

There has been a Donate Life float in the Rose Parade since 2004.

Dan Gromada works part time as a certified public educator for LifeBanc, the northeast Ohio organization for organ and tissue donation.

He tells groups and organizations the story of his son.

“I try to make people aware of how important organ donation is,” he said.

Every 13 minutes a name is added to the waiting list, Dan Gromada said. Seventeen people die each day because they did not receive a needed organ, too.

“I do it to honor Dan and to keep his memory alive. I want more and more people to know his story,” Dan Gromada said.

The Gromadas were prepared to give consent to LifeBanc for donation when they learned that Dan Jr. gave consent when he was 16 and got his driver’s license.

His heart, pancreas, kidneys and liver were donated to four people, who are alive because of his donation, Dan Gromada said. More of his body could have been donated, but he developed pneumonia, which limits the number of organs available, he said. Dan Jr. was pronounced brain dead on June 25, 2004. He had been riding his motorcycle June 23 and got impatient with traffic. He rode his motorcycle on the center line and collided with a farm tractor. making a turn.

akemp@vindy.com