Local Kids Campaign for Friend’s ‘Second Chance’ at Childhood

By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter

A group of five remarkable sixth-graders have decided to sacrifice their Sunday morning’s sleeping in so that they can raise money to help their friend come home after a seven-year stay in  a children’s healthcare facility.

Palisadians Ginger Taurek and Cylia Chasman, along with classmates Luka Bale, Ava Harvey and Ikuya Okada took up a new avocation after learning that a lack of money was the only thing keeping their friend Kai Rambone from living a normal life.

On June 6, 2010, Kai collapsed and slipped into a coma after suffering from a brain aneurysm caused by a congenital condition known as Arteriovenous Malformation.

At that time, Kai was only 5 years old and had just finished kindergarten.

“Many doctors believed that Kai was a lost cause,” Piper Cochran, mother to Ginger Taurek, told the Palisadian-Post. “After several diagnostic tests, doctors said that Kai would never wake up nor breath on his own again.”

But in 2012, after nearly two years asleep, Kai opened his eyes and found that his family and friends hadn’t lost hope.

“I remember dancing around the living room after finding out that he had come out of his coma,” 12-year-old Okada recollected. “I thought things were going to finally go back to normal and I would have my best friend again.”

However, six years later, Kai is still immobile, non-verbal and on a feeding tube and breathing ventilator.

Dr. Andranik Madikian, director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Santa Monica UCLA and vice chair of Pediatrics at Santa Monica UCLA, told the boy’s family that that he was not progressing because Kai was not receiving enough intensive physical therapy, speech therapy and outings that are needed to stimulate his brain.

“Right now Kai’s mother can only afford to pay for two hours of therapy each week,” Cochran told the Post. “It’s not enough. He needs to be working with a therapist every single day and going on two social outings a week.”

Following his awakening, Kai’s mother quit her job to attend nursing school so that she could take better care of her son. As she continues to study for her Registered Nursing degree, she visits Kai as much as she can, but as a single mother, she can not afford the high cost of the therapeutic sessions that her son so desperately needs.

That’s where Kai’s friends come in.

The idea to create a fundraising campaign started after Okada began saving the dollars he earned from selling toys, such as fidget spinners and squishies, to children at his school. After seeing that he could turn a profit, he enlisted his four best friends to help him devise a plan that would earn more than just petty cash.

In May, the crew launched a gofundme page and developed their own unique line of T-shirts that they plan to sell throughout the summer.

With their designs already pressed and ready for distribution, the philanthropic five will be spending their Sundays setting up shop at the Pacific Palisades Farmers Market.

And, only a few weeks into their campaign, the kids have already validated their determination by raising nearly $6,000 of their ambitious $250,000 goal.

“The money will go towardspurchasing a handicap van so that Kai can begin taking trips outdoors again,” Taurek explained. “The rest will go toward his expensive therapy and better schooling to catch him up on what he’s missed over the years.”

When asked if they believed if Kai could truly get better, the kids all agreed in unison.

“If we can get him help, we know that he overcome this and get better,” Chasman said. “And when he does, we are going to take him Modo Mio [in the Village] and let him order every single item on the menu.”

The rest of the bunch told the Post that once they earn enough money to purchase a new handicap van, they plan on taking Kai on special outings to Disneyland and to their favorite parks in the Palisades.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Taurek said. “We just want to show him the world that’s been waiting for him.”

Visit gofundme.com/kaiwalktalk for more information.