Flag-Raising Ceremony Honors Gift of Organ, Tissue Donation

Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network, the region’s organ procurement organization and an affiliate of the University of Rochester Medical Center, will hold its fourth annual National Donate Life Month flag-raising ceremony at noon on Tuesday, April 27, at the main entrance of Strong Memorial Hospital.A Donate Life flag will be raised in Strong Memorial’s main loop with the help of a donor family member and a transplant recipient, while names of organ and tissue donors from the past year will be read. It will be followed by the planting of a lilac bush at the hospital entrance in memory of organ and tissue donors and their families, as well as recipients who have been impacted by this gift of life. A trumpet player – seventh-grade student Mark Gabriel from Johanna Perrin Middle School in Fairport  – will perform.

The event is free and open to the public. In attendance will be staff members from Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network and the Rochester Eye and Tissue Bank; health care professionals from Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester Medical Center, including members of the hospital's transplant teams; and organ recipients and donor family members.