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Courtesy of "The
Tony Danza Show"
Talk show host Tony Danza (from the left) holds a $100,000
check with Samsung's Peter Weedfald, Grej Pesjaka and Chandice
Covington, who wrote the winning essay. |
Winning words
Nursing prof widens youngster's horizons
BY Wendy soderburg
UCLA Today Staff
What do Professor of Nursing Chandice Covington, Samsung Electronics
and television talk show host Tony Danza have in common?
All three responded to the plight of an Albanian boy, Grej Pesjaka,
who mysteriously lost his sight three years ago. Grej (pronounced
gray), then 8 years old, had been playing soccer in his village
when everything suddenly went black.
Because his family had no health insurance, Grej's chances of receiving
treatment seemed desperately slim. In stepped Covington, a brand
new faculty member at the UCLA School of Nursing. She asked the
U.S. Embassy in Albania to allow Grej and his mother to come to
the United States for medical care.
The embassy initially wouldn't allow Grej's mother to leave the
country, so the young blind boy flew unescorted to Los Angeles.
Covington met him and took him in to live with her. "This young
man was clearheaded. He wanted his vision back, so he never shed
a tear," she said admiringly.
After UCLA neurosurgeon Jorge Lazareff conducted an MRI to rule
out a brain tumor, Covington took Grej to a pediatric eye clinic
at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. A faculty member there referred them
to noted retinologist Edgar Thomas at Good Samaritan Hospital in
Los Angeles. Thomas diagnosed Grej with a rare genetic condition
called Fam ilial Exudative Vitreo retinopathy and later performed
corrective surgery, which re turned partial vision to one of Grej's
eyes. The other retina, however, was beyond repair.
Nevertheless, Grej is thriving. He now lives with his mother, Ludmilla,
his father, Besnik, and his little brother, Stiven, in a Palms apartment
that Covington found for the family. Grej is an outstanding student
at Washington Irving Middle School in Eagle Rock, which has a special
education program for the visually impaired. Grej's academic success
does not come easily. He spends long hours on homework every evening
because he can read only one letter at a time with a magnifying
glass.
Covington came to the rescue again. She saw an e mail advertising
Samsung Electronics, "Hope for Education National Essay Contest"and
thought of Grej. "I figured it would take 20 minutes to write
because they only wanted 100 words," she said. "Four hours
later, I sent it in." Shortly afterward, Covington learned
she had won Samsung's grand prize: $100,000 worth of technological
equipment for Washington Irving Middle School.
" It's an amazing thing for the kids of our school,"
said Principal Edward Zubiate. "We'll be able to buy special
monitors and get other technology that will make life easier for
visually impaired students like Grej."
On Dec. 14, Covington and Grej appeared on "The Tony Danza
Show," where they received a gift check for $100,000 from Peter
Weedfald, Samsung's senior vice president of marketing. "I
was nervous, but Grej was a man on a mission," Covington said.
"He looked straight at the camera and explained to people why
this contest was going to help his school."
Danza, Covington added, was "absolutely wonderful. He was
as nice as he could be to Grej." Before their live appearance,
a crew from Danza's show came to Grej's school to film a segment
with Grej and Covington. "When that segment was shown, we looked
over at Tony and he had tears in his eyes," Covington said.
"He was so touched by the story of this little boy."
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