East Oregonian
PENDLETON, Ore. — #YoungmanOnEllen.
Check.
For the past several weeks, students of Pendleton High School Spanish teacher Kathryn Youngman waged a Twitter campaign to get their teacher on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Youngman, fighting cancer for the third time, has long admired the comedienne for her positivity. The hashtag trended with tweets originating around the world.
A producer finally invited Youngman to fly to Los Angeles and observe an “Ellen” taping, and last Thursday, Youngman and two family members settled into their seats among the audience to watch the show. The episode featured “X-Files” actor David Duchovny and aired Monday.
During the show, DeGeneres approached Youngman in the audience for a conversation about attitude. The comedienne invited Youngman to stand and talk about facing challenges.
“It’s totally about attitude and I also think it’s totally about being kind to one another,” Youngman said. “I get my inspiration from you and your show. Be kind to one another. Kindness and spreading it to other people is a great message. It helps you get through these times.”
“These times” referred to Youngman’s breast cancer, which requires chemo treatments every two weeks. At the show, DeGeneres fixed her blue eyes on Youngman’s hazel-brown ones.
“You know, I love talking to interesting people and we have a lot of famous people that come on the show,” DeGeneres said, “but it’s stories like yours that actually I . think about when I go home at night.”
She gave Youngman a long hug.
DeGeneres’ staff heaped red carpet treatment on Youngman, flying her to LA on Wednesday, sending a chauffeur to collect her entourage (her niece, Katie Montchalin, and daughter, Becky Youngman) and drive them to a hotel near Universal Studios. The next afternoon, the driver whisked them to the Warner Brothers Studios where “The Ellen Show” is produced. They were shown to a private green room and fed lunch. Youngman’s mother, Marie Groshong, and sister, Rebecca Barlow, joined them there.
Later from her seat in the audience, Youngman laughed at Duchovny and DeGeneres’ banter. During commercial breaks, staff members kept the audience in a high-energy frenzy with dance contests and pulsing music. Though she had worried about having enough stamina for the trip, Youngman just relaxed and enjoyed the adventure.
“She was so high and energetic. Her adrenaline was flowing,” Groshong said. “She had accomplished one of her dreams and she was in the clouds.”
“It was amazing,” Youngman said. “It surpassed my expectations.”
After the show, the producers treated the five women to dinner at an expensive Italian restaurant.
Youngman said she found DeGeneres to be quite genuine.
“She means what she says and she truly cares about other people,” the teacher said. “The people who work for her promote her values.”
That’s important to Youngman. She is using her third battle with cancer as a platform to promote her own values and the importance of being kind.
The day the show aired, Youngman had returned to reality with a crash. She spent the morning in chemotherapy. It was a lot of downtime to think about her surreal adventure in LA and all the folks who had made it happen. The businesses that held fundraisers for her medical fund. The students and their plethora of tweets.
After watching the show again at home, she expressed her gratitude.
“I’m so thankful to all the people who supported and encouraged me — the high school students and the community and the campaign that allowed me to go down there and spread the message of kindness.”
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