Fallen local CHP officer featured on Rose Parade float

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KGO) -- A fallen Bay Area CHP officer is getting a special tribute at the annual New Year's Day Rose Parade.

Officer Kenyon Youngstrom was killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop in 2012 on I-680 in Alamo.

On Friday his family put the finishing touches on a floral portrait that will appear on the California Transplant Donors Network's Donate Life Rose Parade float.

By being a registered organ and tissue donor, the 37-year-old father of four helped save the lives of several people.

His widow, Karen Youngstrom hopes to one day meet the people who received a part of him. She says she especially would like to hug the man that received his heart so she can once again hear his familiar heartbeat.

Youngstrom's portrait is one of 72 donors around the country who will be featured on the float.

More than 125,000 people in the United States are in need of an organ transplant and 18 die each day because there is no match for them.