Sixteen-year-old Jaelyn Koon (center), who has a kidney disease, was surprised with a trip to Hawaii at Subaru of Cherry Hill as part of the partnership between the dealership’s Share the Love Event and Make a Wish New Jersey.
It wasn’t your normal day at Subaru of Cherry Hill.
Green, white and gold balloons were hanging from the ceilings and there were two Polynesian dancers presenting the traditional Hawaiian Luau Hula dance. The dealership and Make a Wish New Jersey came together to surprise 16-year-old Jaelyn Koon with her wish to travel to Hawaii with her family.
John Daqui, general sales manager at Subaru, kicked off the surprise celebration with a few words. Nicole Rivera, vice president of Make a Wish’s Mission Delivery, followed.
“We are here at Subaru of Cherry Hill because they partner with the Make a Wish Foundation,” she explained. “As much as they are a dealership, Subaru has partnered with us and we have raised $21,000 through the Subaru Share The Love Event charity donations. Those donations enable Make a Wish New Jersey in “getting events like this possible.”
“We’ve worked together on today’s special party,” Rivera told Jaelyn, as she was processing the surprise. “We wanted to share with you the decorations, make this whole dealership festive and give some joy to your hearts.”
Jaelyn initially thought her parents had to handle some “mortgage business” and they were going to take family photos after with the family, including mom Adiwoa; dad J’quain; brother Josiah, 5; and sister Naomi, 3.
Adiwoa shared her daughter’s challenging medical journey.
“It was very unexpected …” she recalled. “A (kidney) culture test kept coming up positive when it should have been negative. My husband and I were both saying, ‘Something’s not right.'”
After further testing, the couple brought their daughter to a nephrologist, a doctor who specializes in kidney disease. Jaelyn was diagnosed with FSGS, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a kidney disease causing scarring in glomeruli, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
“What normally would take someone years to go from Stage 1 to maybe Stage 5, she went from Stage 1 to 5 in six months,” Adiwoa said.
That meant Jaelyn needed a new kidney. To make matters more challenging, the teen has a “very rare blood type in O positive.” It turned out her father has the same blood type, but because of high blood pressure, he was automatically eliminated.
“(Jaelyn) went from 33% of her kidney function down to 3%,” Adiwoa explained.
Jaelyn chose to do peritoneal dialysis, which is done at home. But for a child, the process is seven days a week, 10 hours a day. Adiwoa said her daughter was strong throughout treatment, which happend during COVID. In December 2021, the family received a call of a living kidney donor, a process within itself.
“… The understanding is if they call you for a kidney,” Adiwoa noted, “you must be prepped immediately and get to the hospital, because it is a living donation, and with that they have to go through a different series of tests.”
The initial call turned out to be a no go, but the Koons got another one. After 10 days in the hospital, Adiwoa said her daughter’s body accepted the kidney.
“The surgery went very well …” she recounted. “It was a little struggle because she’s young, but she did phenomenal.”
Adiwoa said her daughter hasn’t complained despite her medical journey.
“She did not want to be a bother, even in her illness,” Adiwoa remembered. “When she started dialysis, her (younger brother) was 2 and I was pregnant with her (sister). She lived for her brother; she would get up and be exhausted. She would … do school online (because of COVID) and fight to play with him. She said she wasn’t going anywhere because she needed to be around for her brother, not even for herself.
“That’s the kind of teenager she is,” Adiwoa said. “She’s not an average teenager.”
And the Subaru gift, she added with emotion in her voice, gives her oldest daughter “a chance to just enjoy herself.”
“It’s something she deserves,” she noted. “We are so grateful.”
Rivera said Make a Wish New Jersey is fortunate to have Subaru choose its organization as its hometown charity through its corporate Share the Love event.
“We have been so fortunate to partner with Subaru and grant over 2,600 wishes for kids just like Jaelyn,” she said.
Funds – $250 to $350 for every purchase – during the Subaru Share the Love Event benefit a charity of the customer’s choice. The dealership has partnered with Make a Wish New Jersey and Ronald McDonald House Philadelphia for the events.
Subaru owner Zaid Nasheed, said each year he is “blown away by the kids.”
“It’s impressive,” he observed. “They show you how they feel … fearless.”
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