The Children's Organ Transplant Association will never request personal or banking information via email from patient families, volunteers or supporters. If you receive any requests for this information and suspect
it may be fraudulent, please contact COTA at 800.366.2682. COTA does not sell, share, rent or otherwise make available any personal or financial information.
Family Spotlight
Meet Josef Walker aka Spiderman ... A COTA Miracle
Spiderman once said, “Not everyone is meant to make a difference. But for me, the choice to lead an ordinary life is no longer an option.” No wonder Josef Walker is such a big Spiderman fan -- they are kindred spirits.
From the time Josef was born, his mother was convinced something was physically wrong with him because he was not able to breathe easily. His first months of life were spent visiting doctors in an attempt to help his mother Anitra understand what was wrong with her first-born child. In the summer of 2006, the Walkers were told Josef had coronary ostial stenosis. After many visits and medications to manage that condition, the family was referred to a transplant center where they were told Josef needed a heart transplant to survive. The interesting twist? Most people did not even know Josef was sick.
Trying to handle the stress of the diagnosis and the strain of travelling back and forth to the hospital for evaluations, Anitra reached out to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) for help. In a short amount of time their family and friends organized a fundraising campaign to help with Josef’s transplant-related expenses. Five days after Josef’s fourth birthday, Anitra received ‘the call’ and got on the road for the hospital. For 10 days following the heart transplant, Anitra never left Josef’s side at the hospital. Meanwhile, Josef’s dad Jackie went to work each day (five hours round trip), trying to juggle work
and family.
According to Anitra, “COTA has been a lifesaver for our family. It’s a great feeling knowing that if you need support or money, COTA is there to help in a moment’s notice. COTA made it possible for my family to not to worry so much about money, and that took a lot of pressure off our shoulders. It’s a great gift of hope to know that if you need money or support at a moment’s notice, COTA is there.”
She continued, “We never knew ANYONE who needed a transplant and for this little boy who seemed like a normal, healthy four-year-old to be put on a table, have his chest cracked open and a new heart put in is a miracle to us. He changed all of us for the better, and he changed our community.”
Today, Josef is healthy and full of energy. Josef has touched many people’s hearts and changed many people’s lives, according to his mother. She expects that he will continue to do so because Josef is here for a reason. Move over Spiderman.
Please visit the COTA for Josef W page to make a donation to help with ongoing transplant-related expenses.
Dear Savvy Senior, I've been searching on the Internet for retirement planning tools and calculators and am not sure where to turn. Which sites can you recommend that are easy to use, provide good information and don't charge a fee?
Calculating Carl
Dear Carl, When it comes to getting a handle on your financial situation and gauging how much you'll need to retire, the Internet offers a buffet of tools and calculators that can be very helpful. Here are some good sites to help get you started.
Retirement Tools
Some of the best retirement planning tools and calculators on the Web today are offered through large financial service companies. While the purpose of these tools is to entice
new business, most companies do not require you to be a client or purchase their products to use their services. Here are four sites to use (try several and compare), all of which
are free.
WealthRuler: Available at TD Ameritrade, this tool charts your retirement outlook and suggests ways to help you develop a plan to reach your goals. Go to www.tdameritrade.com/planningretirement/wealthruler.html and plug in your financial information (taxes, planned financial events, yearly income, projected Social Security, IRAs and other investments) to get your results.
Retirement Income Calculator: Provided by T. Rowe Price (www3.troweprice.com/ric/ric/public/ric.do) this tool uses the Monte Carlo methodology to project whether your retirement-income needs will be met based on your savings, assets and age.
Vanguard Retirement Center: Provides retirement advice, along with different calculators depending on your needs and age: More than five years to retirement, less than five years to retirement, and already retired. See https://personal.vanguard.com/us/planningeducation/retirement.
MyPlan Retirement Quick Check: Offered by Fidelity (Fidelity.com/myplan)
this site starts with a fun "Snapshot" introduction that puts your retirement
reality in perspective, and will help you create a plan to help you reach your retirement goals.
Other Resources
If you don't like the company sites, there are many others you can turn to for free retirement planning information and calculators.
Choose To Save: Created by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, this site (Choosetosave.org) offers the Ballpark Estimate retirement planning worksheet, more than 100 online calculators, savings tips and links to resources to help you manage your finances and plan your retirement.
CNN Money (cgi.money.cnn.com/retirement/tools): Provides a number of calculators that project what and how much you need to save for retirement and how you compare with other people in your age and income level.
MSN Money: Has a "Retirement and Wills Center" that offers a retirement planner and calculator and gives tips and strategies for saving for retirement. Visit moneycentral.msn.com/personal-finance - click on "Retirement."
Bank Rate: Go to Bankrate.com and click on "Retirement" for a variety of retirement calculators.
Specific Calculations
To get estimates or information on specific areas of retirement, here are some additional resources that can help.
Social Security: To estimate your future Social Security retirement benefits at different ages using different future earnings projections, see www.ssa.gov/estimator. Also see Metlife.com/individual/financial-tools/social-security-tool/index.html, which offers a tool to help you decide when to start drawing your benefits.
IRAs: To determine which type of IRA (Roth or traditional) is best for you, how much you can contribute and whether you should convert part or all of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, see Morningstar's IRA calculator at http://screen.morningstar.com/IRA/IRACalculator.html.
Immediate Annuities: To calculate how much you can get with an immediate annuity see Immediateannuities.com.
Life Expectancy: One of the key (and unknown) elements of retirement planning is how long you'll live. Log on to Livingto100.com to get your estimate.
Financial Planning
If you're looking for a detailed financial plan, there are several new websites that offer interactive tools to help you see your current financial situation and map out your financial goals -- all for free. The sites: SimpliFi.net, Planwithvoyant.com and Basic.esplanner.com. You'll need to plug in your income information expenses, debts, assets, insurance, savings and retirement accounts, and the sites will do the rest.
Savvy Senior is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Senior" book. The articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect COTA’s official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
For more information about planning your financial future, creating a will, or supporting the Children’s Organ Transplant Association, call Rick Lofgren at 800.366.2682 or email him at
for a no-obligation information packet.
Partnering with groups and organizations to support COTA’s community campaigns is a critical component of COTA’s ability to guide and direct successful fundraising campaigns. COTA staff members, volunteers and COTA’s transplant families greatly appreciate the endorsement of The American Legion and Optimist International, as well as the Kiwanis organization’s long-standing commitment to help give COTA kids and young adults a second chance at life.
COTA has now made it much easier for your club, post or group to start getting involved with transplant families nationwide. By requesting a unique login, or by using the one already assigned to your group, you can now access COTA’s online fundraising ideas, resources and guidelines. In addition, a new area of COTA’s website now highlights success stories of what specific groups around the country are doing to help COTA’s kids. COTA is anxious to add your contact information, and your success stories, to the growing list of COTA Miracle Makers who are giving hope and making miracles across the country.
To get started finding out how your organization can become a COTA Partner, click on the COTA Partners Login icon on COTA’s homepage at www.cota.org. Then, please complete and submit the For More Information form. A COTA representative will be in touch with you shortly to discuss options and resources. In the coming months more information and materials will be added to the COTA Partners portion of the website, so please keep checking back. If you are having any difficulty finding resources or if you have a question or suggestion, please do not hesitate to contact us by using the link provided or by calling 800.366.2682.
Please let us know how you are implementing COTA’s fundraising ideas/tips, or how you are creating your own ways of raising funds for COTA. To share what you are doing as a COTA Miracle Maker, please contact us at 800.366.2682 or log onto www.cota.org and click on the Contact Us link.
The question is as simple as that. If your answer is ‘yes’, COTA invites you to join a growing group of individuals, called COTA Miracle Makers, who are helping give children and young adults across the country a second chance at life.
The COTA Miracle Maker Program was established to increase the effectiveness of COTA’s staff by identifying volunteers in almost every state who will work on COTA’s behalf, or on behalf of COTA patients. Through awareness-raising programs, COTA Miracle Makers can assist COTA patient campaigns’ efforts to raise financial support for transplant-related expenses and can highlight the dire need of organ and tissue donors.
Here are the Top 10 Ways to Give Hope and Make Miracles:
Click here if you want to Donate Now to help COTA and COTA families.
Send COTA a proposal. You will receive a response from COTA within one week. This application allows you to tell COTA about the activity you are planning for COTA or a COTA family. If you would like to partner with COTA and have access to COTA’s fundraising resources you must submit an application. Click here to submit an activity Application Form.
Not sure what to do? Look at programs available to individuals and groups who want to help COTA and COTA families. Click here to learn more about how you can participate in COTA Saturday. Or click here to raise funds through the One Million Miracles Program.
Use COTA resources. After you register your activity, you will receive a Username and a Password. You can then access the password-protected area of COTA’s website. This area is designed with you in mind. You will find many ideas, templates and tools to make your activity successful.
Forward proceeds from your activity to COTA using the procedures on the
report form.
Celebrate the fact that you helped make miracles happen!
Plan to continue to help COTA and COTA families. Join COTA Miracle Makers and make plans for an annual activity. Click here to learn how you can keep making miracles by becoming a COTA Miracle Maker.
The Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA) provides: Weekly Processing of Reimbursement Payments
Patient families submit their payment requests to the Children's Organ Transplant Association. Requests are processed every week; however, COTA’s staff is available 24 hours a day to assist with medical emergencies. Families are encouraged to discuss any unique situations with COTA’s staff, all of whom are committed to ensuring that needs are being met.
Spiderman once said, “Not everyone is meant to make a difference. But for me, the choice to lead an ordinary life is no longer an option.” No wonder Josef Walker is such a big Spiderman fan -- they are kindred spirits. 
Dear Savvy Senior,
The question is as simple as that. If your answer is ‘yes’, COTA invites you to join a growing group of individuals, called COTA Miracle Makers, who are helping give children and young adults across the country a second chance at life. 