COTTAGE GROVE — Former colleagues of Josh Fattal gathered Saturday in Oregon to celebrate his 29th birthday — and mark his second one in prison in Iran.

Fattal is one of two young American hikers the Iranian government has been holding since July 2009 on espionage charges.

Before he went hiking near the Iraq-Iran border, Fattal worked three years on sustainable farming practices at the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, south of Eugene.

“He made a lot of friends and became a very important member of the community in a pretty short time,” Tegra Fisk, organizer of the celebration, told the Eugene Register-Guard. “This is really meant to be a celebration of his life, which was and is a really extraordinary life.”

The other hiker is Shane Bauer. On May 11, they were due in court, an appearance that was canceled without explanation. Last year, Bauer’s fiancee, Sarah Shourd, was released.

In Cottage Grove, the organizers planned games that Josh enjoyed, such as three-legged races, and prepared to float prayer boats with candles along the river through town, the Register-Guard reported.