Union Bank, American Heart Association Take Home Judges’ Special Trophy for Rose Parade® Float Keep the Beat Alive

Union Bank and the American Heart Association (AHA) Western States Affiliate were named “Judges’ Special Trophy” winners for their 2017 Rose Parade® float,Keep the Beat Alive. The Judges’ Special Trophy is presented to the float with “outstanding showmanship and dramatic impact.”

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Judges’ Special Trophy for Rose Parade® Float Keep the Beat Alive (Photo: Business Wire)

“We are thrilled that the Tournament of Roses has chosen to honor the Union Bank and American Heart Association Rose Parade float with the Judges’ Special Trophy,” said Pierre Habis, head of Union Bank Consumer Banking. “The mission of our float was to promote the American Heart Association’s important initiative to encourage Hands-Only CPR training, especially of our youth. We hope that this trophy will garner even more attention for this important cause.”

In addition to promoting Hands-Only CPR through its float, Union Bank and the American Heart Association trained more than 3,000 people in Hands-Only CPR during float decorating days and the post-parade Showcase of Floats in Pasadena, California.

“We are honored to receive the 2017 Rose Parade Judges’ Special Trophy for outstanding showmanship and dramatic impact,” said Kathy Rogers, Executive Vice President for the American Heart Association Western States Affiliate. “We are especially proud of our amazing float riders whose stories dramatically illustrate the power of CPR training to saving lives, and grateful for Union Bank’s commitment to supporting our efforts to create a community of lifesavers.”

Union Bank and the AHA’s award-winning float featured youths who saved lives by performing CPR, as well as the people they saved, and honored the passage of a new California law that will provide Hands-Only CPR training to thousands of high school students each year. The float embodied the parade’s theme Echoes of Success, by honoring teen lifesavers and the future generations of potential lifesavers the new legislation will create.

The float riders, who came from three different Western states and ranged in age from 11 to 75 years, stood on the float’s 55-foot long floral piano keyboard and among its four eight-foot tall floral drums. The musical elements represented the beat of the heart and incorporated the correct rate for CPR – 100 to 120 compressions per minute.

The float also featured a nine-foot tall illuminated heart-shaped DJ booth/stage where Ilisa Juried, a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter/dancer/actor who survived cardiac arrest at age 18 because bystanders performed CPR, performed to the original song, Live Your Life, which she co-wrote and recorded. A CPR dance team comprised of 28 local Crenshaw High School and Abraham Lincoln High School students walked alongside the float and engaged the audience with a CPR-inspired dance choreographed by Juried.

The 15 CPR heroes were (detailed bios and headshots available on request):

• Darian and Eunique Latchison, ages 16 and 12; Irene Sample, age 75, Bakersfield, Calif.
  Darian Latchison was desperate to save the life of the woman who rescued him from homelessness and took in his sister at birth. Irene Sample collapsed after walking home in 107-degree heat. Darian’s sister Eunique called 911 while Darian performed chest compressions. “I kept thinking ‘No, you’re not going yet. You have to see me graduate high school,’” Darian said. Irene, who was required as a licensed foster parent to maintain a CPR certification, had brought Darian and Eunique along to her CPR training.
• Daniel and Jonathan Tyshler, ages 13 and 11; Boris 69, Seattle, Wash.
  Daniel and Jonathan Tyshler were enjoying their vacation in Southern California when their grandfather collapsed while driving on the 405 freeway. Jonathan moved his grandfather’s head to ensure blood flow while Daniel called 911 and began the compressions he had learned the previous semester in school. CPR was critical – Boris was without a pulse for 14 minutes.
• Nathan Boyer, age 14; and Issac Wenrich, age 27, Chandler, Ariz.
  Making new friends after his family moved across country was tough for Nathan Boyer, but his baseball coach was always there to give him a pep talk or make him laugh. In March 2016, Nathan and coach Isaac Wenrich were practicing baseball drills when Isaac suddenly slumped to the ground. Nathan began CPR, which he learned as a Boy Scout, and passed Isaac’s phone to a bystander to call 911.

• Steve and Lewis Griffith, 66 and 15, Forestville, Calif. (Sonoma County)
  Lewis Griffith was watching TV when he heard a crash and found his father on the floor. He called to his mom to dial 911 and to his mother’s amazement, Lewis knew just what to do. Lewis had received CPR training in school three months earlier – he began CPR and continued for five minutes until paramedics arrived to relieve him.

• Madi Giese, age 17, Manhattan Beach, Calif.
  As a young girl collapsed on the tennis court, dozens of onlookers called 911 but seemed frozen in shock. Madi Giese rushed to the girl’s side, performing a dozen chest compressions before the girl coughed and took a breath. Madi had learned CPR through the Junior Lifeguard Program. “Because of my CPR training, I had the confidence to act. I was determined to save her life,” Madi said.

• Skylar Berry, age 13, Rio Linda, Calif.
  When a classmate was pulled from a swimming pool – unresponsive – Skylar Berry went right to work administering CPR, continuing chest compressions until an adult could take over. Skylar, then 11, had learned hands-only CPR just three months earlier. A week after the incident, she co-founded a CPR club at her school to teach others the life-saving skill.

• Celine Showman, age 42, Oceanside, Calif.
  Celine Showman still can’t remember the night she took her then eight-year-old daughter Megan out to a sushi restaurant. As her mother slumped off her stool, Megan started her mom’s “chain of survival” by calling for help. Three Navy Corpsmen from Camp Pendleton appeared – one took Megan away while the others began CPR. The woman and two men had just returned from a deployment in Iraq.

• Melissa Ziebell, age 35, Pasadena, Calif.
  Nearing the finish line of the Paris Half Marathon, Melissa Ziebell was ready for her souvenir snapshot. The last thing she remembers was her legs giving out. Two young girls trained in CPR came to her aid. An avid athlete, Melissa was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and underwent open heart surgery. She still wonders what might have happened if she had suffered cardiac arrest while alone on a training run, rather than near volunteers who were trained in life-saving CPR.

• Ilisa Juried, age 29, singer/actress/songwriter, Los Angeles
  Before Ilisa Juried appeared on The CW’s reality show Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious, her heart stopped in New York’s Grand Central Station. Juried saw a group of hip-hop dancers performing and joined in. A few moments later, she collapsed. Three bystanders started CPR, continuing for 30 minutes until paramedics arrived and shocked Juried’s heart back into a normal rhythm.

For three decades, Union Bank and the American Heart Association have united in the fight against heart disease and stroke, the nation’s No. 1 and No. 5 killers of both men and women.

Union Bank has been engaged in multiple aspects of the AHA’s work, including fundraising, education, volunteer leadership, employee involvement and health messaging. In the last nine years alone, the bank’s employees and clients have donated more than $8.6 million in support of the AHA’s critical research, education, and prevention programs. 2017 will be the second year that Union Bank has joined with the AHA in presenting a Rose Parade float.

In September 2016, the California State Legislature passed a law that will require Hands-Only CPR training for a majority of high school students. The bill will create a new generation of potential CPR lifesavers who can make the difference in the first critical moments when a person suffers cardiac arrest. Approximately 90 percent of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die. CPR, especially if performed immediately, can double or triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival.

Follow the Keep the Beat Alive float on Facebook and Twitter using #CPRSavesLives.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country.

About the Pasadena Tournament of Roses®

The Tournament of Roses is a volunteer organization that annually hosts America’s New Year Celebration® with the Rose Parade® presented by Honda, the Rose Bowl Game® presented by Northwestern Mutual and a variety of accompanying events. For more information, visit www.tournamentofroses.com. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and visit our blog at blog.tournamentofroses.com.

About MUFG Union Bank, N.A.

MUFG Union Bank, N.A., is a full-service bank with offices across the United States. We provide a wide spectrum of corporate, commercial and retail banking and wealth management solutions to meet the needs of customers. We also offer an extensive portfolio of value-added solutions for customers, including investment banking, personal and corporate trust, global custody, transaction banking, capital markets, and other services. With assets of $116.9 billion, as of September 30, 2016, MUFG Union Bank has strong capital reserves, credit ratings and capital ratios relative to peer banks. MUFG Union Bank is a proud member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE: MTU), one of the world’s largest financial organizations with total assets of approximately ¥293.7 trillion (JPY) or $2.9 trillion (USD)¹, as of September 30, 2016. The corporate headquarters (principal executive office) for MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation, which is the financial holding company and MUFG Union Bank, is in New York City. The main banking office of MUFG Union Bank is in San Francisco, California.

1 Exchange rate of 1 USD=¥101.12 (JPY) as of September 30, 2016

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