CarolinaEast Medical Center to Participate in 2026 Organ Donation Awareness Flag-Raising Ceremony

Contact: Brandy Popp

CarolinaEast Medical Center is among dozens of hospitals that will partner with HonorBridge to simultaneously host a statewide Donate Life Flag-raising ceremony and moment of silence. Pause to Give Life promotes the mission of organ, eye, and tissue donation and honors donors, donor families, recipients, and those waiting for a life-saving transplant in North Carolina.

Pause to Give Life includes hospitals throughout most of North Carolina and the observance occurs annually in April to kick off the start of National Donate Life Month. The statewide ceremony will take place on Wednesday, April 1 at 10:08 a.m. The time of 10:08 a.m. highlights that one donor can save eight lives, followed by a moment of silence for 30 seconds to recognize more than 3,000 patients waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in North Carolina. CarolinaEast's Pause to Give Life ceremony will take place outside the Medical Center, near the entrance of the Emergency Department.

The Donate Life flag was first introduced in 2006 and since then, the flag has become a national symbol of unity, remembrance, and hope while honoring those touched by donation and transplantation. Over the past 20 years, more than 50,000 Donate Life flags have flown across the United States.

HonorBridge is a federally designated, not-for-profit organ procurement organization serving 7.5 million people in 78 counties in North Carolina, along with Pittsylvania County in Virginia. As North Carolina's largest organ donation and tissue recovery organization, HonorBridge facilitated 339 organ donations, 1,517 tissue donations, and 906 organ transplants, and saved 789 lives in 2025.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognized CarolinaEast Medical Center for outstanding participation and collaboration with HonorBridge. CarolinaEast Medical Center received Platinum Recognition for saving and improving lives by promoting the live-saving gift of organ, eye, and tissue donation and increasing registered donors across the country.

Anyone 18 years old or older with a North Carolina Driver's License can register as an organ donor regardless of age, health, gender, or ethnic or racial background. To register as an organ, tissue, and eye donor, visit https://www.honorbridge.org/registerme/ or your local North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office.