Gilda's Club Members Come Home With New Cars From Oprah

It was a long year for Galloway Township’s Josie Chivalette and Ocean City’s Chrissy DeGennaro, but this one was worth the wait because in the end, Oprah Winfrey gave them a gift she promised them 11 months ago.

Chivalette and DeGennaro picked up their brand new 2012 Volkswagen Beetles at Atlantic VW of Egg Harbor Township on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 13. They won the cars on one of the last episodes of Oprah’s ABC show, which was also one of her final “Fave Things” episodes.

The two also won diamond earrings, a Coach purse Ugg boots and designer outfits from one of Winfrey’s favorite designers.

“I never had a Christmas that big,” Chivalette joked.

It was a day of joy after many months of pain for the 67-year-old Chivalette, who lost her husband to liver and colon cancer that spread to his lungs; sister to lung cancer, and her youngest daughter to breast cancer, before she, too, was diagnosed with breast cancer. They shared a gene that gives women a predisposition to getting the disease.

“I was diagnosed at the same time my husband was sick, so I couldn’t share it with him,” Chivalette said. “I kept it to myself and shared it with my family, which is the greatest family you could ask for.”

She met DeGennaro as part of Gilda’s Club, a worldwide Cancer-support group with a branch in Linwood. In 2006, DeGennaro was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a rare blood disease that is more likely to affect men, and prevalent mostly among African American men.

However, upon hearing the hard time Chivalette has endured, DeGennaro wasn’t thinking of herself. She nominated Chivalette to go on the Oprah Winfeey Show. Chivalette was accepted, and DeGennaro went because she nominated her.

“I was reading on Oprah’s web site that she was looking for someone inspirational, a hero,” DeGennaro said, “and I immediately thought of Josie. She’s someone who’s gone through what she’s gone through, and she’s able to say, ‘People have it worse.’ I find that amazing.”

“I can only imagine what it’s like,” said Mike Guido, of Ocean City and the General Manager of Atlantic VW since late September. “But they’re engaged and they have a different approach to life. That’s a miracle in itself.”

Or as Chivalette puts it, “I don’t sweat the small stuff.”

Chivalette and DeGennaro spent a day and a half in Chicago for the taping of Oprah’s show. Neither knew they were going to a Favorite Things episode.

“When the snow started, things came down from the ceiling,” Chivalette said. “Every time snow came down, you would get something. I don’t remember half the things she said.”

The final thing they got was their cars, for which the show picked up the cost of all the taxes and fees, amounting to just over $9,000, Chivalette said.

However, because those involved in the show wanted their audience members to get brand new cars, they had to wait almost a year before they could pick them up.

It helped them both get through each of the ensuing days.

“It helped a lot. I am one of the luckiest people alive,” said Chivalette, whose last Chemotherapy treatment was on Tuesday of this week. “It would take my mind elsewhere. … Who else can go on a TV show that’s seen everywhere and walk away with a car, earrings, a coach bag, ugg boots and a new outfit?”

“It was exciting, to be given a car and then told you can have it next year. I was anxiously awaiting it,” said DeGennaro, who wore her earrings for the first time on Thursday. “ … There are 267 people across the country getting cars today.”

They had t-shirts made up that read “Punch Buggy Yellow” and “Punch Buggy Blue,” denoting the colors of the cars each woman won. Chivalette’s was blue, while DeGennaro’s was yellow.

On Thursday, the two women were picked up by limos sent by Atlantic VW for them and their friends and family.

DeGennaro brought her husband, their son and a few friends.

Chivalette came with her daughter, her granddaughter, her brother, her two sisters and her brother-in-law.

The window of the dealership that usually announces the latest bargains was wiped clean and replaced with the words “Congratulations Chrissy and Josie.”

The dealership is also donating $25 from each new and used car sold until the end of the month to Gilda’s Club.

“This has all been first class,” Chivalette said. “The people have just been awesome. They really joined in the excitement.”

With all the hoopla over, Chivalette will now return to her normal life, where she continues to work as the Director of Program Support at Atlantic Cape Community College, albeit for only a few days a week.

“I’ve found that people with Cancer generally have a positive attitude,” Chivalette said. “It could have been a lot different, but I still got up, and I still go to work.”

And now they both have new cars to show off.