Kai Quinonez, 10, of Rossmoor, whose story was featured in the News Enterprise on Sept. 5, 2012, received a special gift of encouragement from CommunityMedia Corporation’s Multimedia Director, Franco Te, after he read of the boy’s life-threatening condition.
A week after the story crossed Te’s desk at the News Enterprise office, he had gone to Las Vegas and coincidently attended a comic book convention, when he thought of Kai’s love of Batman and Spiderman. Te immediately had comic artists read of Kai’s story. Several of the artists then drew sketches of Batman and other comic stars, autographing them on the spot. Shortly thereafter, Te traveled to Ace of Comics in Lawndale where he picked up 13 well-kept comic books featuring one of Kai’s favorite characters, Spiderman.
“I was about Kai’s age when I got into comic books,” said Te. “I thought that maybe it would make his day a little easier.”
The vibrant 4th grader at Hopkinson Elementary School is living with a one in a million rare blood disease called Aplastic Anemia which essentially causes bone marrow failure. At the time the News Enterprise published the story, Kai’s family was searching for a bone marrow transplant match. Since then, Kai has improved, is in no further need of blood transfusions although a match has been made with stem cell cord blood, according to his mother, Beth Quinonez.
Some of the drawings Kai received were of Batman by comic book artist, Mark Brooks, who is famous for “X-Man.” Artist Simon Bisley, who is famous for “Judge Dredd,” also sketched Batman for Kai, too. Tim Bradstreet, who is famous for “Punisher,” donated a drawing of a troll. Norm Rapmund, who is famous for “Teen Titans” comic books gave an autographed issue and a sketch of “Wolverine.” Phillip Tan, who is known for “Spawn” and has worked on” Hawkman,” gave another sketch of Batman. Kai also received two other prints of Batman signed by Jay Savage and Mike Choi.
“Hopefully it will make him happy and let him know that other people out there care,” said Te. “Hopefully it will encourage him to keep fighting.”
Kai tentatively looked at the drawings and was already reading the comic books after he met Te at the News Enterprise office. His mother could hardly keep him from diving into the comic book stories, and Kai proudly posed for a picture with his brother, Klaus, 12, who prefers “Star Wars.” His mother, Beth, told Te about how Kai has a “bat cave” in his bathroom that all his friends like and how Kai has a full Batman costume which he once wore at a cotillion. Brother Klaus also went to the cotillion dressed at the Riddler.
When Kai grows up, he’s thinking of becoming an actor, author or artist. Kai has already starred in his own Batman movie that was made by high school students from Save A Life Today (SALT).
To learn more about Kai, visit his website at Kaispage.com.