Department President's Project:
Children’s Organ Transplant Association
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Department President's Project
Every
Department President has the opportunity to select a special project for
the year. When I was considering what I wanted to promote, I only knew
that I wanted to do something that would help children. Then I heard a
presentation by an Association that makes miracles happen. What price can
you put on the life of a child?? –the life of your child or the life of
your grandchild. There is no price high enough. A child is a gift from
God. Every day however there is a child somewhere whose life is given a
price tag, a price tag that many parents are unable to pay. It is the cost
of a life giving transplant. More
Transplants save lives, but they are very expensive. Most parents do not
have the resources to provide for a transplant for their child. The cost
can be crippling to a family. It can seem impossible and the only hope is
a miracle.
That’s where the Children’s Organ Transplant Association comes in.
It can help a miracle happen. The Children’s Organ Transplant Association
or COTA for short, helps parents to find the miracle they need. COTA is an
organization that cares. It assists families in finding the funding and
resources to provide for organ transplant. It helps families to help
themselves. COTA develops a supportive relationship with a transplant
family. It provides emotional support, assists in coordinating fund
raising efforts, provides matching funds for money raised and, it provides
for a tax free trust account to pay for expenses. Once money is raised and
placed in the trust it is available throughout the child’s lifetime. COTA
works with relatives and friends to create a giant fund raising machine.
It creates “miracle makers.” This year we will become miracle makers for
children in
New York
State who are in need of transplants. Funds will be used exclusively for
New Yorkers and your generosity will help parents to help their children.
Because COTA has an exemplary reputation, health care providers often
recommend that parents contact the Association. There is never a fee for
COTA’s services. One hundred percent of funds raised remain with the
child. Emotionally and financially COTA is there to support families and
help save children’s lives. Please support the Department project this
year – raising funds that will help COTA save the lives of children.
Ann Geer,
President
Department of New York
The
Success Story
of a
Heart Transplant
In the year of our Lord 2002, right here in
our Department of NY, a junior member of the American Legion Auxiliary at
the tender age of eighteen months old,
was stricken with a virus which attacked
her heart. This left her in the intensive care with heart failure, and her
only chance of survival was to put her on the "Organ Transplant List" for
a heart transplant.
Can you picture the traumatic time for her
family... Her mother & father never left her side for months,
sleeping when they had the opportunity on chairs in her hospital room --
I had never met her and barely knew her
family, I had the opportunity to visit her twice in the hospital because
although she lived in upstate NY, she had to be treated in New York
University Hospital in New York City.
This was the ALA administrative year of Dept.
President,
Linda Moseman Raymond
and she appointed Yolanda Comproski her chaplain, and the baby's grandmother (Debbie Herrmann) was the
7th
District President ...Little did we know, God had bestowed a tremendous
Job for them. Believe me when I tell you, the entire ALA in the state of NY
was praying for her ...and support from the 7th District helping her family
was phenomenal...
When Regina Harris & I heard about this,
because we lived downstate we
immediately made plans to visit her with some goodies (toys, books etc).
It was heart wrenching to see this beautiful little child struggling to
breathe... after the second visit we received
word of a miracle, a Heart transplant was
available for her. "The Power of Prayer" in multiples...
Although she had many more years of doctor
visits, meds etc. this past summer, nine years
later at the age of 11 years, Dorel’s doctors gave her the green light to
start participating in school sports and she immediately signed up for the
Baseball team and is doing well!!!
See her
Photos below...
by: Ann Viverito
& Debby Herrmann
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