LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — A walk along the track or across the field at Jake Sobeski Stadium in West Pittston might not seem like a lot. It's where the Wyoming Area Warriors play. But right now, that's not possible for volunteer coach Kim Pace of Jenkins Township.
"I'm pretty much locked in the house or going to the yard, but now I can't even go in the yard. OK? The tanks, the oxygen tanks don't last long, and I can't walk very far," said Pace.
In the spring of 2015, Pace was diagnosed with Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis, which causes irreversible damage to the lungs over time. Right now, Pace is waiting on a call from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for a double lung transplant.
"When I first started, I wasn't on oxygen constantly. But now I'm on oxygen constantly, and the flow of the oxygen instead of little pulses of oxygen, the oxygen is a continuous flow of oxygen," he explained.
Before it got that bad, Pace enjoyed volunteering as a special teams coach for Wyoming Area.
Paces told Newswatch 16 he gets "special satisfaction knowing the kids can be successful doing something that I'm teaching them."
Now that Pace's family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with his medical bills, he says he's learning just how special volunteering his time on the field meant to others in the community.
"I can tell you it's a fact of holding back tears. I'm an emotional guy. I'm holding back tears at this point in time. They're happy tears," said Pace.
That's because folks have come together and helped him raise more than $20,000.
"The support that I see is so humbling and overwhelming. I can't even put it into words other than those. What I just said, it's just overwhelming. The Wyoming Area community and beyond. I'm taken back by it to be very, very honest with you," said Pace.
He continues to be grateful for the support as he waits by the phone for the call.
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