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.