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Motorcycle Ride to Raise Awareness of Need for Organ Donors

A sizeable caravan of bikers will motor from West Mifflin to Morgantown later this month for "Operation Pledge-for-Life," a motorcycle ride to raise awareness of the need for organ donors.

The not-for-profit Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) is hosting the event for the second year running.

Misty Enos of CORE said the ride will take place, rain or shine, on Saturday, July 28. The bikers will depart from the Hot Metal Harley-Davidson store in West Mifflin at 11:00 AM, riding to the MountainFest Motorcycle Rally in Morgantown for a day-long outdoor event.

Enos said motorcycle riders are a passionate bunch.

"By nature, they're very good-hearted people who like to take on causes like this," said Enos. "We have a motorcycle enthusiast that actually works at CORE, and he just really believed that it was worth reaching out to this crowd of people to really start to rally around spreading the word about [organ] donation."

She said there's a tremendous need for new organ donor registrations in the United States, with about 114,000 people on waiting lists for various organ transplants.

"We really need people to educate themselves about donation. There's a lot of myths and misconceptions out there," said Enos. "People hesitate to register because they think that if they put it on their driver's license, somebody won't work hard to save their life. That's certainly not true."

To find out how to register as an organ donor, or to read more about the motorcycle ride, visit CORE's website.