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Press Release Archive
Release Number: 123
08-May-01
For Immediate Release
Contact: Matt Boxler
Contact Phone: 401-341-2156
Contact E-mail: newsrelease@salve.edu
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'REMARKABLE PROMISES KEPT,' STORY OF JOHN KACH FEATURED ON OPRAH WINFREY SHOW
NEWPORT, R.I. - From his hospital bed last spring, John Kach vowed to join his Salve Regina teammates on the basketball court for their opening game in the new Rodgers Recreation Center.
Kach, a Salve Regina freshman, had come dangerously close to losing his life in a fight against bacterial meningitis. He survived, and despite battling for more than two months in critical condition, and despite losing his right foot between the ankle and knee, and despite losing the fingers on both hands, he promised his teammates he would walk onto the court to join them again that fall.
In November, he did it, to the delight of Kach's teammates and classmates.
Kach's compelling story, "Remarkable Promises Kept," will be aired tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday, May 9) on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Kach flew to Chicago this morning for a live taping of the show tomorrow. His segment will air Wednesday at 4 p.m. on channels 10 (WJAR - Providence) and 5 (WCVB - Boston).
Kach's segment will be one of a group of stories that illustrate the theme of Wednesday's show: "Despite the years, despite the distance, despite the odds ... meet ordinary men and women who made remarkable promises ... and kept them."
By the end of the segment, the national viewing audience will learn that Kach is no ordinary person. His next goal is to resume classes at Salve Regina, which he intends to do this fall, and earn his degree.
"I want teach high school kids," he told a group of kindergartners last week at Middletown's Linden School. "So by the time you guys get there, you may be seeing me."
Kach visited the school to personally thank students for their cards and gifts, and for having collected 32,000 pennies during his fight against the disease. He took time to sit down with the students to explain what happened to him and to answer all their questions.
"I may look a little different, he said, "but I can do everything."
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