The City of Winnipeg is adding its voice to those promoting Manitoba's organ and tissue donor online registry.

This week is National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, and this morning a flag was raised at City Hall to celebrate that. Mayor Brian Bowman said during the ceremony that the flag was raised to highlight the importance of organ donation and to recognize the generosity of the donor. Canadian landmarks are being lit green today as well, including the Winnipeg sign at The Forks.

As of this morning, more than 29,800 Manitobans were signed up as donors online at signupforlife.ca. The goal is to have 30,000 by April 30th. Transplant Manitoba gift of life physician Dr. Faisal Siddiqui doesn't think the registry reflects the total number of people who intend to donate.

"I think there are still a lot of people who are carrying the little blue cards in their wallets from their driver's licence when they got it maybe years ago, or they've had a discussion internally and said, 'you know, I really want to do this,' but they haven't actually taken the next step and gone online to register that intent to donate," Siddiqui told Golden West after the flag raising ceremony.

Dr. Siddiqui calls the 30,000 person goal a "mile-marker," and there's still more to go after we reach it. But he also says what's more important than the numbers is getting people talking about their wishes with loved ones.

"As much as the registry is kind of a really -- it's a visible way that we can say, 'this is how many people have gone online and actually commited their intent to donate,' what really is more imporant to me and more important to our program is that people have that conversation at home, at the dinner table, talking to your loved ones. Tell them what you want so that if that situation arises where you could be an organ donor, we make sure that we can honor your wishes."

Donors signed up in record numbers after word spread of Logan Boulet, a 21-year-old hockey player who died in the Humboldt Broncos team bus crash north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan on April 6th. Boulet had signed up to be an organ donor just weeks before the crash, on his birthday.