Hello everyone! This is Sari, one of Colton’s friends and a member of the volunteer team for his COTA campaign. I wanted to publically express how thrilled and thankful we are to all the donors for helping COTA for Colton raise $30,000 so far! That means we are more than halfway to our goal of $50K! We have an array of fundraisers currently taking place including a virtual Krispy Kreme donuts fundraiser that ends April 10th, a Panera Bread restaurant fundraiser on April 15th 4-8 pm and a Kroger Community Rewards program where you can donate to COTA in honor of Colton with every grocery purchase! For more information on these ongoing and upcoming events, please check out the “Events” tab here on COTAforColton.com.

It wouldn’t jive with my style if I didn’t use this opportunity to share a story about Colton and me. Colton and I became close friends at Agree Outpost Camp in the summer of 2014. When we chose different colleges to attend two years later it became more difficult to keep in touch, but we were determined to make it work. Sarah, another close friend from Agree, and I planned to visit Colton at Western Michigan University our sophomore year of college. Naturally, it just so happened that the biggest snow storm of the season decided to blow our way on the day we were supposed to take the bus there. This was further complicated by all three of us attending different schools across the state of Michigan. After several bus cancelations, rescheduling, refunds and then train tickets, Sarah and I made it to Kalamazoo. We stayed in Colton’s frat, which was exactly what you would expect from movie depictions of frat houses. Regardless of the questionable living situation and polar weather, we had a very memorable time that definitely falls into my top five best weekends of college ever. Please enjoy a picture from our stay in Kalamazoo. We love you Colton and we are all sending you our support!