John Kaiser wasn’t waiting for a
sign. He wasn’t waiting for an
angel to cast him a line, a role
to fill. He was simply watching
TV in his Pine Valley home when
synapses fired and an idea based off of
someone else’s idea was conceived.
A 16-year-old boy who lived down the
street from Kaiser was in a serious car
accident, which left the boy with traumatic
brain injury.
“He almost died,” Kaiser says.
But the boy lived. And there was rehab
to endure, doctors to see
and lives to rework.
In the same neighborhood,
Kaiser moves
his thoughts to another
child; this one is a
12-year-old girl who
was taken to the doctor
by her parents who
suspected she had the
flu. Moments later, the
little girl was airlifted to
Chapel Hill.
She had a disease with
a name Kaiser says, “was
about this long,” as he
stretches his arms out,
implying its dire nature.
“She almost died five
or six times,” he adds.
Like the boy, she lived
down the street.
“But,” Kaiser explains, “I saw what
happened when she came home again.”
With dysfunctional kidneys, the girl
would need dialysis, but no one in town
at the time would perform pediatric
dialysis, so the mother and father learned
how. The parents also reconstructed their
home—their little girl’s room and her
bathroom—to accommodate her new
needs.
After the initial unexpected hospital visits,
there were banners welcoming the children
home. There were friends and family
at the front door showing their support.
“But over a period of time,” Kaiser
says, “the friends go away. They just go
about their lives and they grow up and
they leave these people behind.”
Still, Kaiser’s life was for the most part
unchanged by the realities facing his two
neighboring families. His life, too, went
on, but his heart remained open.
Kaiser, who by profession is a commercial
interior designer, was locked into the
TV. Drawn to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover:
Home Edition,” he became intrigued.
His creative mind was saying, “Man, I
wish I could do that.”
And then it dawned on him, “I really
could, but on a scaled-down basis.”
Kaiser already had some of the knowhow,
Above: John Kaiser, founder of Welcome
Home Angel. Right: Darcie, Lillian, Andy
and Kaylee Pettigrew smile big as they
enjoy the new room that Welcome Home
Angel designer Debbie Gomulka created
for their daughter Lillian.
but after watching the show he
began his own research. Through online
investigations, Kaiser found an organization
in Detroit that helped kids with similar
situations as those of his neighbors.
“I decided this is what I wanted to do,”
he says.
But then, tragedy would strike closer
to home.
Kaiser’s daughter, Stacey Kaiser, who
was in her early 20s, “went from climbing
mountains and snowboarding with
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WBM november 2011
Allison Potter