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More Ties that Bind: Gus Little and Travis Vetters

Portland Magazine

Alumni

Business

Athletics

June 17, 2019

Travis Vetters and twin sonsIf you’ve been reading Portland magazine for a few years, you probably read the story “Gus and Travis” from the Fall 2015 issue. So you know about Gus Little ’06 and his successful kidney transplant. You also know that his friend, baseball teammate, fellow business major, and “brother” Travis Vetters ’06 was the person who donated one of his healthy kidneys after finding out they were a match.

Well, there’s more to their story:

Gus recently became board chair of Donate Life Northwest—a community of people who have been recipients of a liver, kidney, or cornea and others who are waiting for a match. Through his own experience Gus learned that it was sometimes hard to be open about his situation. “Kidney failure was lonely,” he says. “It’s comforting to know that others have lived through it. This organization is an opportunity to help and spread awareness.”

Travis’s life has also changed as a result of the transplant, though not in a way anyone could have predicted. In August 2018, Travis married Whitney, one of Gus’s post-surgery nurse coordinators. They now live in Idaho and recently had twins, Parker and Paxson (pictured with Travis). Gus is their godfather.

When Travis reflects on his decision and the goodness that grew out of it, he says, “In school, in professional sports, it was always about me and my benefit.” (Before starting a career with Nike, he played four years with the LA Dodgers in the minor leagues.) “This was the first time I thought about someone else and gave in to that, and I can see what that has given me.” 

Watch the Northwest Emmy award nominated video about Gus and Travis: