Edhat Reader
For over 20 years, OneLegacy’s Donate Life Rose Parade® float has inspired people worldwide to save and heal lives with the powerful message of organ, eye, and tissue donation.
This year, Vivian Charity Buetel will be honored with her floragraph on the float. She lived life with a spirit of gratitude and presence. She was an avid runner, yogi, backpacker, and explorer until she died unexpectedly in 2015. Her smile was bright and infectious.
For nearly 15 years, her work as a Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) nurse embodied her namesake: Charity. Viv treated the youngest, most vulnerable patients at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with diligence, dignity, and compassion.
Long after her patients graduated from the NICU, Viv cared for them and their families by organizing the Annual NICU Reunion at the Santa Barbara Zoo. Viv’s spirit of charity lives on in VIVI’S FUND, a special fund established by the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation to help families whose newborns are being treated in the NICU; and is epitomized in her legacy as an organ donor. Even after her passing, she continues to save lives, having successfully donated five of her organs.
Two of her recipients, Scott (kidney) and Connie (lungs) maintain a close relationship with her family. A Donate Life Walk BBQ is held in her honor every September in Vivian’s honor at Leadbetter Beach in Santa Barbara.
The OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade® float inspires viewers to save and heal hundreds of thousands of people needing organ, eye, and tissue transplants each year. Register today to become an organ, eye, or tissue donor by visiting www.OneLegacy.org/register.
