Daniel Ronco's spirit makes him an obvious choice to ride this year on Donate Life's Rose Parade float, but the kidney-transplant recipient from Moreno Valley still had to interview with a committee from the nonprofit group, which raises awareness about organ donation.

"This year's float really focuses on the celebration of life and its gifts, and Daniel walked in there (to the interview) ready to celebrate," said Stephanie Schmitz, volunteer and community events coordinator for OneLegacy, an organ and tissue recovery agency.

But there was one thing Ronco, 51, didn't have that other riders usually carry on the float — a photo of his donor. "I always wanted to know the donor," Ronco said. "I knew there was a family out there."

Instead of a picture, Ronco planned to carry a letter he composed for the donor's family, who, he later learned, were from Ventura County. He had sent the letter to them through the transplant center, which is procedure, but it didn't get through to the family. A second attempt was also unsuccessful. Then Schmitz got involved.

"Once he became a float rider, we thought we've got to find out somehow," Schmitz said.

A call to the transplant coordinator at the hospital where Ronco had surgery in July 1999 yielded the donor's name. Further investigation confirmed the family was still in the area. Ronco's letter was sent, and a meeting was set up for Wednesday between Ronco and the family of the donor, who was from Moorpark.

When he learned last week of the meeting, Ronco was nervously happy. "I was crying because of joy," Ronco said of the chance to meet the family of John "Johnny" Marcus Lopez, a 17-year-old Moorpark resident who died July 26, 1999, from injuries sustained in a motor-bike accident.

In some ways, as family members discovered during their meeting Wednesday at OneLegacy's Sherman Oaks office, Ronco has a lot in common with the teen who so greatly affected his life.

Caring, curious and much loved, Lopez had a contagious smile, family members told Ronco.

"He was amazing. He was the perfect son. People think I'm saying that just because he's not here anymore," said his mother, Simi Valley resident Kerry Rohrer. "But he was."

Rohrer described the time when her son bolted from her side in a parking lot to help a woman struggling to open a door. Perplexed by his action, Rohrer hadn't even noticed the woman.

"He always wanted to make sure everyone else felt good," said Kathy Lambert, Lopez's aunt.

Ronco, who sometimes still visits the dialysis centers that used to consume so much of his life, understands that impulse. He wants people to know the difference between being on a dialysis machine and having a successful kidney transplant. They are "two different worlds," he said.

Ronco volunteers for a food ministry as well as for the National Kidney Foundation, serves as an ambassador for OneLegacy, and also helps build Donate Life's yearly Rose Parade float.

Ronco also participates in the U.S. Transplant Games. In 2006, he took home a gold medal in volleyball from the Louisville games.

Lopez, too, was an active young man who loved sports. "He wanted to do everything," Rohrer said.

According to his father, Moorpark resident Steve Lopez, the Moorpark Soccer Club is setting up a tournament to commemorate his son.

On the day of the accident, he was noticing his son's recent growth spurt, he recalled. "When he first got his bike, his feet didn't touch the ground," Steve Lopez said. "That day, I still remember him standing on his bike, and I couldn't believe both feet were touching."

For Steve Lopez, Wednesday's meeting provided a chance to do something he had desired for years.

"About six months after the accident, they sent me a letter with some of the recipients," he said of those who received organs from his son. "I wanted to meet them all, but as time passed, I was unable to."

He was happy to get Ronco's letter and finally meet him. "He's a really nice man," Steve Lopez said.

Ronco still thinks about the transplant daily — sometimes every five minutes, he said, depending on where he is. For him, the chance to meet his donor family was like winning a grand prize.

A bit nervous during the meeting, Ronco said he hoped the family didn't mind his occasional stutter.

When family members assured him they didn't, Rohrer added that Johnny used to sometimes stutter as well.