COTA MIRACLE MAKERS

COTA

GIVE HOPE

MAKE A MIRACLE

What Others Did

One person leading others can make a difference.

New Jersey Legionnaire Dedicated to Giving Children a Second Chance at Life

For more than 20 years, Tony Lori has been placing coin collection jars across the state of New Jersey on behalf of the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA).  Throughout these two decades, his efforts have netted more than $80,000 -- primarily pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters -- for COTA children who call New Jersey home.

 “When I was the Children & Youth Chairman, I was always challenging New Jersey’s 21 Chairmen to do something for COTA,” said Legionnaire Tony Lori.  “Adopting COTA as our (New Jersey’s) child cause all those years ago was important then, and it’s still important today.”

How did Tony Lori actually help raise $80,000 in coins for COTA?  According to Lori, “I would stand up at our meetings and ask the members who had a membership application in their pocket.  If they did, it was great and when they turned it in they were asked to put coins in the COTA jug.  If they didn’t, they were ‘fined’ and asked to put coins in the jug.  Everyone won … and made a difference.”

Since Legionnaire Tony Lori launched the COTA coin collection program, each of the 21 New Jersey American Legion Post Chairmen manages a “COTA jug” in his/her area.  Every six weeks, the donations are counted, the post writes a check to the New Jersey Legion and then they are combined and sent to COTA for distribution to New Jersey kids who are awaiting a second chance at life.

College Students Take a ‘Hit’ for a Great Cause

When Briton Segler, the 2007 Service Chair of the Health Care Administration Department at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, learned about COTA and COTA Saturday on the web, she was inspired to combine her field of study with an activity that would make a difference. 

She decided to organize a dodge ball tournament to raise funds and awareness for COTA. Briton’s idea really paid off: the tournament raised $500 to help COTA get closer to its goal of making One Million Miracles.

According to Briton, “I wanted to come up with something that would promote health and wellness, and at the same time benefit others.  Though COTA is a national organization, it provides opportunities for a group’s donation to go directly to help a COTA patient living within their own community or region.”

Segler’s dodge ball tournament followed the National Amateur Dodge Ball Association rule book with each team having six members.  Trinity University invited Texas State Health Care students to join them as the competition for this double elimination tournament.   Each member of the winning team was entered into a drawing for donated prizes including a San Antonio Spurs Sports Package and overnights for two in the Dallas area. 

Millions of pennies help save kids’ lives.

Wisconsin Key Club Starts A War: A War To Help Save Lives!

Middleton High School Key Club (Middleton, Wisconsin) accepted COTA’s challenge and organized an effort to help COTA ‘make miracles’. Members of this Wisconsin Key Club were inspired when a COTA representative presented a workshop at their annual Key Club Convention.

According to Key Club President Megan Pattarozzi, “Using the spirit of homecoming week, we decided that a penny war might spark some fun amongst the students and teachers, while helping out a great cause.”

The penny war consisted of ‘fighting’ by donating coins in honor of the teacher the students most wanted to watch get a pie in the face! The lunchtime jingle of coins being dropped in cans kept everyone excited and teachers, well, a bit nervous.

The effort sparked a lot of interest amongst students and teachers alike and the Key Club-sponsored activity ended up with a great result … over $500 raised to help COTA make miracles!

A Teen Celebrates Her Grandfather’s Second Chance at Life

When Hilary Blake was a candidate for Key Club Governor for Texas-Oklahoma, she instantly knew what her platform would be -- organ donation awareness. 

“It was really simple,” Blake explained.  “I watched a miracle unfold again and again as my grandfather survived not one, but five, life-saving transplants.  Miracles are truly possible, but I needed to do something to get kids my age motivated about organ donation.”

Blake partnered with the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to offer Key Clubs in her district the opportunity to educate the public about organ, tissue and marrow donation by getting involved with her project, ‘Roping in the Donors’.

 “I basically told everyone that any Key Club, whether it had eight members or 800 members, could participate simply by handing out organ donation information and organ donor cards.  I wanted everyone to understand that miracles are possible and that each of us can help give the most precious gift … the gift of life.”

Her compelling plea resulted in 320 Key Clubs responding to her challenge and in less than one year’s time, more than a quarter of a million donor cards were distributed through the Key Club network. 

Because Hilary is now in college, she is no longer able to be a Key Club member.  But as a Resident Assistant in her DePauw University dormitory, and as the President of the DePauw Entrepreneur Club, Blake has decided she will partner with COTA once again – but this time to raise funds through the “One Million Miracles” initiative.

“I love the idea that a penny can make a difference,” Blake said.  “Even a poor college student can spare a piece of copper – I’ve just got to get my campus organized and motivated.”

Miracles are possible.

Arizona Couple Commit to Helping Others After Son’s Transplant

Today, Jodi Sornsin is a typical working mother living in Tempe, Arizona, with two teenagers who keep her running in many directions at the same time.  But 16 years ago she was a mother who was facing a terrible reality – her baby boy was going to die unless he received a liver transplant. 

Jodi’s son, Ben, had a normal first year of life.  But literally overnight, Ben went from healthy to comatose when he developed a virus in his liver. 

“In just two weeks’ time, our lives went from the normal everyday things to sitting at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center waiting for Ben to get a life-saving liver transplant,” said Jodi Sornsin.  “As we were sitting there waiting for a liver, the financial staff started asking us how we were going to pay for the transplant.”

The price tag for Ben’s liver transplant was $450,000 and the Sornsin’s had only $100,000 of insurance to cover transplant costs. 

Desperately needing a transplant miracle, friends of the family started doing research and told the Sornsin’s about the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA).  Jodi called COTA. 

“That’s when the miracle happened … the hospital’s financial officer never called again because they had been assured by COTA that transplant expenses would be paid,” said Jodi. “We left the hospital knowing that we still had lots of work ahead of us, but with COTA’s guidance and support, our campaign raised $135,000 in nine months’ time.  If we hadn’t found COTA, we likely would have had to file for bankruptcy protection.”

Once Ben was home and recovering, Jodi decided that she and her family needed to take action and give back to COTA, and to other Southwest families who were facing similar transplant crises. Jodi’s first effort was helping with activities sponsored by COTA in the Phoenix area.  Then she worked with COTA and her employer, Great Impact, to produce wristbands for COTA to use as a fundraising tool.  The company has produced more than 100,000 wristbands for COTA. 

Ben’s dad, Tom Sornsin, has also made a difference for other COTA families.  His employer, Hunter Contracting, holds an annual golf tournament and one third of the proceeds are donated to COTA each year.  Last year alone, the golf tournament raised $20,000 for COTA; with a total of $78,000 raised to help COTA kids over the past few years. 

According to Tom, “The owner of my company, Mrs. Marian Taddai, decided that COTA should be one of our tournament’s annual recipients after she saw how much COTA helped our family.”

Jodi and Tom Sornsin have turned their deep-seated gratitude into life-saving action.  “No one would ever guess that my handsome, athletic, six plus-foot-tall son, had a life-saving transplant,” said Jodi.  “Today, all these years later, Ben’s daily anti-rejection medication is our only real reminder of how his life started out.”

Mira’s Smile Shines Brighter Than A Gold Watch

A 40-year employee of American Appraisal Associates (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) recently decided to forego the gold watch or wooden rocking chair the company includes on its gift list to recognize its employees’ years of service. 

Instead, Ed Raether asked his fellow employees to host a COTA fundraising event to help with his granddaughter’s transplant-related expenses. Raether’s granddaughter was born 10 weeks premature and needs a life-saving kidney transplant; her family began working with COTA several months ago.

The result? American Appraisal Associates hosted a hot dog sale and in one afternoon, Raether’s co-workers commemorated his years of service with more than $6,000 raised for transplant-related expenses. However, in addition to what the employees raised, the company’s executive staff pledged $5 for every $1 raised for their personal support of COTA. In total, this effort raised $36,375 to give hope and make a miracle for Ed Raether’s granddaughter, Mira.

Mira’s volunteer team is continues to raise funds while they wait for a miracle, but the donation from her grandfather’s company in her honor is a huge help toward their fundraising goal!