Seeking kidney donor through marquee and social media posts

COLLEGEVILLE » The marquee at Collegeville Italian Bakery Pizzeria Napoletana overlooking Ridge Pike can easily grab the attention of any driver.

Hopefully, the current message that Al Angelo is seeking a kidney donor will catch the eye of the right person who is willing to sacrifice a kidney to help save a life.

It worked once, and the hope is that it will work again.

“Al is a very good customer,” said bakery coowner Steve Carcarey. “He approached us a few months ago and said ‘do you mind if I put a little pamphlet in your lobby?’ We said, absolutely, but that’s not going to do anything. We need to post it on our marquee and to do a social media post and ask all 23,000 of our followers to share the post. Al needed a bigger avenue to save his life than putting a piece of paper in our lobby.”

The bakery’s loyal customers shared the post, but it was the original message on the marquee that caught the attention of a woman driving by who wanted to help.

Unfortunately, tests later revealed that she was not a good candidate for Angelo.

“She was someone with a big heart but she didn’t qualify. They’re very strict about who qualifies as a donor. They don’t want you to hurt yourself,” said Angelo, a Norristown native who’s been living in Collegeville since 1970. “She wanted to help someone and was very disappointed that she couldn’t donate a kidney.”

The plea for a donor went back up on the bakery’s marquee around July 12.

Angelo, who has had diabetes for 20 years, said the disease was the cause of his decline in kidney function.

“I’m on the verge of dialysis, but not there yet. I’m anxiously looking for a transplant. When you have diabetes you may have complications … it may be blindness, heart attack, it may be kidneys or it may be foot amputation. There’s a plethora of symptoms that can come along with diabetes. With me it was the kidney. It’s a creeping disease that makes its presence known somewhere along the line.”

Immediately after graduation from Bishop Kenrick High School in 1963 Angelo joined the U.S. Navy.

“I was a seaman third class. I didn’t go to Vietnam but I was there during Vietnam,” he said.

After serving in the Navy for three years, Angelo got married, worked as an electronics technician and raised a family in Collegeville.

“When they grew up I decided to explore my hobby of juggling and it grew into a profession as a magician,” said Angelo, who cultivated his professional renown as Juggler Al (juggleral.com), which kept him busy entertaining young fans for years.

“I make little kids laugh for a living. I did that every weekend for the last 20 years and just recently have been turning jobs down because I don’t have the stamina to do a full 45 minute performance. But once I get my transplant I’ll come back and pick up my career where I left off,” he said. “My request for a kidney is my fight and I’m in it to win. I want people to call me and ask me questions. I want my number out there and to be relevant.”

Contact Al Angelo at 610716-7628.