Duluth Man Needing Living Kidney Donor Brings Back Epic Christmas Displays

DULUTH, Minn. — A Duluth man known in his neighborhood for his bright Christmas lights and decorations is bringing back the tradition again after stopping for a few years, while also searching for a living kidney donor.

Pat Stojevich has more than 20,000 Christmas lights strung around his property and counting.

“I figure by the time we’re done we’ll be right around 25,000 lights,” he said.

His name may sound familiar to you. Pat is big on giving back to the Northland community. He’s the founder of the Haunted Shack in Carlton, which he has used as a platform to raise more than $100,000 for the Special Olympics, collect over 8,000 warm coats for kids in need, and gather more than 80,000 pounds of food for the food shelf, among his other contributions.

He hit pause on his larger-than-life light displays for five years after it became too much for him to put it all up and take it all down, year after year.

But during a year seriously lacking in joy, he found the inspiration to bring it all back.

“This year my grandkids, they’re getting kind of old now, one is turning 7 and the other one is 2, and I thought it’d be great to start decorating on a smaller scale, but my son, he wanted to go big,” Stojevich said with a laugh.

Pat even included an American flag light display in the middle of his Christmas decorations on his front lawn, which he says is a tribute to both the military and workers on the frontlines of this pandemic.

His neighbors are overjoyed to see his Christmas decorations out again.

“Oh my gosh, it’s phenomenal to see it finally come back after all these years!” Paula Carbaugh, a neighbor and friend of Stojevich, said.

And while he has spent countless hours brightening up his block, he has also been in a battle for his life after he was diagnosed with kidney failure two years ago.

He spends many of his days traveling back and forth to the Mayo Clinic every week for hours of dialysis.

“I’ve been on dialysis now for a year and a half, it takes 3 days a week out of me,” Stojevich said. “I’m there for almost 5 hours every time.”

His only hope of getting back to normal and adding years to his life is to find a living kidney donor.

That isn’t the only health challenge he’s facing.

Stojevich is also recovering from a nasty fall from his roof that happened while he was putting up Christmas lights in November.

“The ladder ended up twisting and I ended up falling 11 feet to the ground onto my back, fracturing my back in four places, I split my head open, ended up in a hospital for four days,” he explained.

However, he’s definitely dedicated to his decorations. He couldn’t help but first ask the paramedics who arrived on-scene if they wanted to help with the lights before taking him to the hospital.

“When they finally roll him over, he looks up and says, ‘Oh, well since I have all you guys here and you have all the equipment, can we just finish hanging the lights?” Carbaugh said. “And that is true Pat Stojevich style, he’ll make it funny, and set you at ease every chance he gets.”

In the days and weeks following the accident, Stojevich’s family and friends all helped set up many of the decorations, with Pat, still traveling for dialysis while also now dealing with a fractured back, continuing to set them up, too.

“Christmas is always a joyous time of the year for everybody and families get together during Christmastime,” he said. “It’s something I do for the community and different families to come by and hopefully put some joy in their life and in their hearts.”

You can drive by the light displays at 202 East McGonagle Street in Duluth.

Email Pat at pstojevich@aol.com if you or someone you know may be interested in a living kidney donation that can save his life. You can learn more about paired kidney donations from the Mayo Clinic here.