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 Kent, volunteers are raising funds for transplant patients like local boy Cullen Steele.

Born on November 17, 1999, Cullen was diagnosed with Pulmonary Atrial Hypertension, and doctors at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California recommended a life-saving heart and double lung transplant. An estimated $75,000 is being raised by Kent volunteers.