TV’s Regis Philbin surprises
Velardis
Letter leads to dream renovations
by Gabe Donio, Gazette
Staff Writer

Courtesy Photo
Television celebrity Regis
Philbin (third from right) came to the home of
Sal and Kathy Velardi. Their daughter Kim
(between Philbin and her mother) entered Kathy
to win a kitchen makeover for Mother’s Day.
HAMMONTON—Kathy and Sal Velardi
said they couldn’t believe Regis Philbin was
standing in the doorway of their Peach Street
home around noontime on April 23. The disbelief
continued as Philbin explained that Kathy had
won a completely remodeled kitchen, courtesy of
Lowe’s Home Improvement. The prize was won when
Kathy’s daughter Kim wrote a letter to the “Live
with Regis and Kelly” program, explaining how
her mother has helped her through her battle
with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Today, Kim Velardi said she is in remission, and
continuing treatment. Her goal is to return to
her work as a Hammonton Middle School teacher in
the fall of 2008.
There were only five winners out of nearly
10,000 letters, a representative of the show
told The Gazette. The Velardi family will be
featured as one of the “Mom’s Dream Come True”
winners on the May 9 “Live with Regis and Kelly”
show, as a tribute to mothers before Mother’s
Day, May 11.
The program will appear on May 9 at 9 a.m. on
Channel 6.
When the Lowe’s Home Improvement truck pulled up
with 28 Lowe’s employees from the chain’s
Turnersville location and work began, the
reality of Kim Velardi’s gift to her mother
began to take shape. Lowe’s employees began
packing up and dismantling the current kitchen.
With help from HGTV, work on a new kitchen – and
perhaps some additional home renovations —
began.
While she had been notified about her mother
winning the prize, Kim Velardi said she never
knew Philbin himself would be coming to the
Velardi home in Hammonton last week.
“The crazy thing is, it was actually a surprise
for me too. I had no idea Regis Philbin would be
at our door,” Kim Velardi said.
Even while she was ill with leukemia, Kim
Velardi said she was thinking about a way to
give back to her mother. She had once won a
makeover for her dad, Sal, from the Philadelphia
Daily News; so when she heard about the contest,
she decided to try and win a makeover for her
mother’s kitchen.
“Everyone said, ‘This is you. This is something
you would do.’ Even before this all happened,
I’ve always been the kind of person who would
put herself aside for anybody else,” Kim Velardi
said.
Her mom agreed.
“She’s amazing. I always knew it. She didn’t
have to prove it to me. I am what I am today
because of her. I just can’t believe she was
thinking of me for Mother’s Day,” Kathy Velardi
said.
Jon Waddingham of Lowe’s Home Improvement
explained the renovations Sal and Kathy Velardi
will be receiving.
“It’s a total kitchen makeover. The drywall will
be coming out, the floor’s being replaced, the
cabinets and appliances,” Waddingham said.
The renovations are valued at five figures,
Waddingham said.
Kathy Velardi moved in with Kim at her
condominium on Rose Rita Terrace, just more than
a month after Kim had moved out of her parents’
home. She has been living there with her
daughter during the months of her illness.
The condominium is located off of Fairview
Avenue, across from Hammonton Middle School
where she had worked until becoming ill. Some
days, she said, it was difficult to watch people
going to work and students going to class from
the window of her condo. Having her mom there
helped, she said — joking that living together
also made it hard to keep winning the prize a
secret from her, especially when the show called
the condo.
“When you go through something like this, you
definitely can’t do it by yourself. Emotionally,
it’s overwhelming, and physically some days it’s
overwhelming. I wouldn’t be as positive about it
without her being here. Without even a question,
she just knew she would be here with me every
step of the way, and I definitely needed her.
Now, she’ll have a nice new place to go home
to,” Kim Velardi said.
The new kitchen will be a gathering place in the
Velardi home, Kim Velardi said.
“She always talked about an island in her
kitchen. Not an island to go to, an island in
the center of the kitchen where she could talk,”
Kim Velardi said.
Kim Velardi went to Cooper Hospital in Camden
for her initial intense chemotherapy treatments.
She wrote in her letter that she endured
seizures and a stroke during those difficult
days. Her mother was there when the stroke
occurred. In fact, Kim Velardi wrote that her
mother spent nearly all of those first five
weeks by her daughter’s side in Cooper Hospital.
Even looking back at those difficult times, Kim
Velardi noted with humor that there was a
connection between the “ Live with Regis and
Kelly” show and Cooper Hospital.
“The funny thing is, while I’m lying in Cooper
Hospital, I saw that Kelly Ripa is the
spokesperson. I joked that I’ve lived there long
enough to be the new spokesperson for Cooper
Hospital. I lived there longer at first than I
did in my condo,” Kim Velardi said, laughing.
Velardi said she thanked everyone – including
her father, her brother Mike and extended family
and friends – for their support during her
battle against leukemia. In her letter, she
explained why she wanted to win the contest and
have the “Live with Regis and Kelly” show do
something for her mother.
“I realized right from day one that not just my
life would be affected by this illness, but even
more the life of a mother who has to sit and
watch her daughter go through all that I have
been through and more. I know from the very
bottom of my heart that I could not have made it
this far without my mom being by my side each
and every day. I’m not asking that you make her
“ultimate” dream come true — I promise that I
will take care of getting healthy and fighting
to beat this thing on my end! I am asking that
you make the dream of her having a fresh, new
place in her home when she goes back to live
there because she truly has meant the world to
me and needs this more than anything in her
life,” Kim Velardi wrote in her letter to the
show.
Coincidentally, all good things seem to be
happening at once for Velardi. She said her
cancer is in remission, and this week will mark
the end of her intense hospital treatments. She
will continue maintenance chemotherapy for the
next two years. Her hair, she said, is expected
to grow back by the end of the year.
On May 9, she and her family will be showing off
her parents’ home improvements on national
television. Kim Velardi said she felt the timing
was perfect.
“Because we’re so close to the end and so close
to the good stuff, this culminates everything.
After a long, long horrible road at the
beginning, the end is finally here. It was
already exciting to see the end of the tunnel,
but to have all of this happen makes it even
better. This is full circle totally. I see the
light at the end of the tunnel. I was always a
positive person, and I’ve always continued to be
positive. I always try to see the good side of
things,” Kim Velardi said.
Recently, there was a talent show at the
Hammonton Middle School and Kim Velardi showed
up to bring some good news.
“I made a guest appearance at the talent show. I
told the kids I will be at 8th grade graduation.
I will be back teaching and coaching soccer in
September. I just want things to be back to
normal. I miss everybody at work. You never
thought you’d hear someone say they wanted to go
back to work, but I really do. I told the kids I
will see them in September,” Kim Velardi said.
After everything she has been through, Kim
Velardi continues to think about others, and the
winning of this latest prize proves it. While
workers prepared her mom’s new kitchen, Velardi
summed up what winning the kitchen meant to her.
“I always said, when all this was said and done,
I wanted something good to come out of this for
them. I want them to have a happy memory after
six months, that I’ll be well, that I’m in
remission and that they’ll have a beautiful new
place to live,” Kim Velardi said.

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