News
TAMPA — In 200 words or less, Jeana Rago Blair made a plea.
An exceptional-education aide had made a difference in her special-needs son's life. She asked the Oprah Winfrey Show to help her say thanks.
The show responded with tickets for them to attend a taping in Chicago last week.
Little did Rago Blair know that the thank-you also would include a new car, $1,900 diamond earrings and a few more of Oprah Winfrey's favorite things.
Diane Sangelo, a school district employee, has worked with Rago Blair's son, Isaac Rago, for seven years. She followed the special-needs student from Grady Elementary to LaVoy Exceptional Center to Coleman Middle School and now to Gaither High School as his one-on-one aide.
Isaac Rago, now 16, operates at the level of a toddler. He cannot speak and will need assistance in daily activities for life.
But Sangelo, 66, didn't see that as a problem, just a challenge.
"I knew that if you spent the time with these children they would come around some time and start responding," she said.
She soon had him out of his wheelchair and walking on his own. She taught him some basic sign language so he could communicate. The two developed a bond where Sangelo could tell what Isaac Rago was thinking with just a look at his eyes.
"She has a gift for seeing the potential these kids can make in society," Rago Blair said. "My son would not be the young man he is today without her in his life."
Sangelo became more than a teacher for the family. She sometimes watches Isaac Rago on weekends, and she has accompanied him to summer camp. She takes him to and from school.
Her devotion is amazing, Rago Blair said, and she's not recognized enough for it.
When she surprised Sangelo with the Oprah tickets, Sangelo couldn't believe it. But what came next made it even better.
Upon arrival at the studio, Sangelo and Rago Blair watched as audience members from a previous taping left laden with gifts.
Groans erupted as those waiting for the next taping realized they must have missed Winfrey's famous "favorite things" show, in which she gives every member of the audience some of the year's hottest gifts.
But when Winfrey stepped on stage, she made the announcement: the crew would be taping part two of "Oprah's Ultimate Favorite Things 2010," which aired on Monday.
"I almost fainted and I was crying," Sangelo said. "I just kept thinking, I don't deserve it, I shouldn't be getting this."
This being Winfrey's last season, she didn't hold back.
Sangelo, Rago Blair and fellow audience members each received more than $6,000 worth of merchandise, including a Coach purse, a set of Le Creuset cookware and an Apple iPad.
But the best part?
A 2012 Volkswagen Beetle so new that audience members won't receive it until September.
For Rago Blair, who has written numerous essays in an attempt to nominate Sangelo for any award she could, the look on Sangelo's face was priceless.
"It was awesome to watch Diane's reaction," Rago Blair said. "To see she was appreciated for who she is."
Shelley Rossetter can be reached at srossetter@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3374.
Loading...
