Kayla Marie Thompson

Kayla Marie was a daughter, sister, and mother to two beautiful babies. She loved her two girls very much, and always put them first. Kayla was a loving, caring, and unselfish person. Because of a reckless driver, Kayla’s life was cut short at the age of 23. Now her babies are without their mommy. 

To honor Kayla Marie’s legacy, her mom and dad, Bernadette and Robert, worked with Orange County Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero to install a traffic light on Avalon Park Boulevard and Perdido Drive in Avalon Park, near the crash site where she passed. 

Kayla Marie, “is a hero,” her mom said, because of her decision to register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor. “Her legacy is continuing to save lives with the traffic light.” Bernadette also mentioned that she and her family finds hope in knowing that the traffic light will help save lives and “other families won’t have to suffer and endure the pain we have by losing a loved one to speeding, reckless driving on that road.”

The impact of one person’s gift is endless. Like a stone dropped in water, an endless ripple of hope is sent into the world. One registered donor can save up to 8 lives through organ donation, give two individuals the gift of sight through cornea donation and provide healing and mobility to 75 more through the life-enhancing gift of tissue donation. What can you make possible?

You can register as a life-saving organ, eye, and tissue donor when renewing your driver license or online at DonateLifeFlorida.org.

Donate Life Florida raises awareness about organ, eye, and tissue donation and registers individuals as organ donors throughout the state. While Donate Life Florida shares the mission, organ procurement organizations (OPOs) do the mission of organ and tissue recovery. Our Legacy is an OPO based in Maitland and is federally designated to provided recovery services to ten counties in east Central Florida, which includes Orange County.