(BLOOMINGTON) – The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA), a national nonprofit committed to helping transplant families raise funds for life-saving transplants, has been selected as a beneficiary of the Fresh Thyme Giving Bag Program for the month February. COTA helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support.
The Fresh Thyme Giving Bag Program, which launched in March 2018, is a reusable bag program supporting nonprofits in the communities that have Fresh Thyme markets. COTA was selected as the February 2019 beneficiary of the program by Fresh Thyme store leadership at the 3600 West 3rd Street, Bloomington, Indiana, location. For every reusable Giving Bag featuring the Giving Tag purchased at this location during February 2019, COTA will receive the $1 default donation.
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) was founded in April 1986 when residents of Bloomington, Indiana, rallied around a toddler who needed a life-saving liver transplant. In less than eight weeks, the community raised $100,000 to place the boy on the organ waiting list. But he died before an organ was found. Those community volunteers, along with his parents, turned tragedy into triumph by using the funds they raised to help other transplant families.
For more than three decades, COTA has assisted thousands of transplant families by helping to raise funds for transplant-related expenses. COTA has built extensive volunteer networks across the nation in an attempt to ensure that no child or young adult needing an organ or tissue transplant is excluded from a transplant waiting list due to a lack of funds.
“All of us at the Children’s Organ Transplant Association was delighted to receive the news that a local business had selected us as the February 2019 Fresh Thyme Cause Bag Program recipient at a Bloomington, Indiana, location,” said Rick Lofgren, COTA’s President, and CEO. “We provide our assistance and guidance at no cost to transplant families, and these types of unrestricted fundraising opportunities are why we are able to do so.”
COTA is the largest organization dedicated to helping families with transplant-related expenses and providing fundraising assistance to community volunteers across the country. COTA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization so funds allocated are not considered income for families. Since 1986, more than $110 million has been raised across the country for thousands of children and young adults needing an organ, bone marrow or stem cell transplant. Learn more about COTA by visiting COTA.org or calling 800-366-2682.
For more information on the Fresh Thyme Cause Bag Program, visit freshthyme.bags4mycause.com.
