With the cost of a transplant often exceeding $500,000, many transplant patients are unable to shoulder the financial burden of such a procedure. The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) is a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding communities in raising funds for transplant-needy patients. In Portland, volunteers are raising funds for transplant patients like local man Ronald Gluth.

Born on August 7, 1968, Ronald was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, and doctors at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California performed a life-saving double lung transplant on November 29, 2009. An estimated $60,000 is being raised by Portland volunteers.