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KV’s Krew set for MS Walk
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Kathleen Villella, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2008, usually sits as she teaches at St. Joseph/Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Austintown. A team named for her, KV’s Krew, will walk in the 2010 Mahoning Valley MS Walk beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Canfield Fairgrounds.
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Samantha Villella, director of advancement at Cardinal Mooney High School, led the way in organizing KV’s Krew in 2009 to participate in the local Multiple Sclerosis Walk in honor of her mother, Kathleen Villella. Last year, the team raised $7,000.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
CANFIELD
Mrs. “V,” as she is known to her students, has always walked the extra mile to make a difference in people’s lives.
Now, people will walk for Kathleen Coppola Villella on Saturday in the 2010 MS Walk/Race Mahoning Valley at the Canfield Fairgrounds.
KV’s Krew, made up of family, students and parents of students, co-workers, friends from the family’s church, St. Jude in Columbiana, and all areas of her life — at least 100 strong — are walking to honor Kathleen and others who are afflicted with multiple sclerosis.
Her daughter, Samantha Villella, organized the first KV’s Krew for the 2009 MS Walk, along with her siblings, Nikki and Brent, and father, Ed, all of Boardman.
Registration for Saturday’s walk, supported by Giant Eagle and EMD Serono/Pfizer, is at 8 a.m. The walk begins at 9 a.m. Money raised supports local MS programs, such as loaning equipment to people who need it and respite care, as well as research projects being conducted in Ohio, said Guyla Wehman of the Ohio Buckeye Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
In 2009, KV’s Krew raised $7,000.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms can range from mild, such as numbness in the limbs, to severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision.
Most people with MS are diagnosed between age 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men affected, according to the MS Web site.
For more information about MS or Walk MS, call (800) 344-4867 or visit www.MSohiowalk.org.
Kathleen, or “KV” as she is known to her co-workers at St. Joseph/Immaculate Heart of Mary School, was diagnosed with primary progressive MS on July 16, 2008.
Kathleen, 58, had struggled for almost eight years with symptoms that numerous doctors were unable to diagnose until physicians at Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center pinpointed her disease, said Samantha, who is director of advancement at Cardinal Mooney High School, where she graduated in 1998.
“I’m honored and humbled and overwhelmed to have that many people walk for me. There were people there I hadn’t seen in years,” Kathleen said of the 2009 Walk.
She graduated from Mooney in 1969 and from Youngstown State University in 1974.
Kathleen said she will walk a little bit in Saturday’s walk but added that MS has forced her to make adjustments.
She usually sits while teaching and uses a cane to walk and has a variety of ankle-foot orthotic devices, including a wireless neuroprosthetic, foot-drop system that uses a low-level electric stimulation to activate the muscles that lift her foot while walking.
“I’m coping, but I don’t do as much as I’d like. I have to navigate a lot of steps to get in and out of the school building. One teacher carries my books for me, and someone parks my car in the winter,” she said.
Samantha, who received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kent State University, said her mother, known as a great cook, baker and sewer and speaker, loves sports, including high school and college football and college basketball.
But Samantha said her mother particularly loves the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Before her diagnosis, Kathleen and her husband, a college professor at the Kent State University Salem Campus, regularly attended Steelers games, for which they have had season tickets for 34 years.
Over the last few years, Kathleen has attended fewer sporting events because of the difficulty of maneuvering through crowds and now enjoys watching the games on television at home, her daughter said.
But Samantha said her mother is best known for being a natural teacher. Teaching is her passion.
“For 30 years, her students have been her second family,” she said.
“My mom is a woman who loves unconditionally and gives of herself unselfishly,” Samantha said. “She dedicates her life to her family, friends, faith and career. She is an amazing role model and demonstrates the qualities that I admire most in a wife and a mother — she is honest, gentle, noble, loving and considerate.
“Many people tell me that not only do I look like my mother but that I am my mother’s daughter. I think that is the highest compliment I could ever receive — to be just like my mom,” she said.