CHP Officer Fatally Shot In Contra Costa Co. Honored On Rose Parade Float For Donating Organs
PASADENA (CBS SF) -- A California Highway Patrol officer who was fatally shot in Contra Costa County in 2012 and had his organs donated to save others' lives is being honored on a float in the Rose Parade in Pasadena Thursday.
Kenyon Youngstrom, a 37-year-old father of four, was shot on Sept. 4, 2012, during a traffic stop on Interstate Highway 680 near Alamo and died at a hospital a day later.
Youngstrom's organs went to multiple people, including a woman who had been waiting a decade for a transplant and a mother who received his left kidney and pancreas.
He will be honored with a floral portrait on a Rose Parade float Thursday for the California Transplant Donor Network, a nonprofit focused on saving the lives of those in need of organ and tissue transplants.
"Knowing that he donated makes his loss a bit more bearable," Youngstrom's wife Karen said in a statement. "It's comforting to know that a piece of him is still somewhere in a very real and concrete way. Kenyon would be proud -- proud that he served the community, and proud that he was able to donate his organs and save someone's life."
More information about the float can be found online at www.donatelifefloat.org. The 126th annual Rose Parade started at 8 a.m. in Pasadena.
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