Gold tree lighting honors kids with pediatric cancer

Gold is the color of pediatric cancer awareness. Each year in Malverne and surrounding communities, the Mary Ruchalski Foundation lights a tree with gold lights, and wraps a gold ribbon around it to honor the lives of those who have been affected by pediatric cancer, and to emphasize the importance of finding a cure.

This year’s event was held on Sep. 16 at the Malverne Long Island Rail Road station. There was a table for donations, and after remarks by Mayor Tim Sullivan; Carol Ruchalski, who heads the foundation, which is named for her late daughter; and other elected officials, a switch was flipped to light the green tree gold.

The average life expectancy of a child treated with chemotherapy is 57 years, some 21 fewer years than the typical adult. Every day, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer, and one of every five of them will die of the illness. Because of these statistics, the Mary Ruchalski Foundation consistently pushes for more legal and medical action to combat, and ultimately cure, childhood cancers.

Only 4 percent of federal funding for cancer research is directed to these cancers, Ruchalski pointed out, adding that if a political campaign can raise millions of dollars in a day, there must be room in the country’s budget to push for better, more age-appropriate treatments for children with rare illnesses. New York City has spent half a billion dollars on congestion pricing infrastructure that is not being used, she said, and it is high time for our priorities to shift, and for our children to be properly advocated for.

Ruchalski lost her daughter, Mary, to cancer after she was diagnosed with the disease at age 11, and has been dedicated to fighting it ever since. “We light the tree in September at various villages to commemorate Pediatric Cancer Awareness month,” she explained. “We sell bows and lanterns to raise funds and to bring awareness, like Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Well this (month) is ours.”

Marie Giallombardo started a similar foundation in honor of her late daughter, Gina, a 2006 graduate of South Side High School, in Rockville Centre, who died of cancer in 2011. Her foundation is called Life for Gina. Both women have essentially made the cause their life’s work.

Giallombardo celebrates the life her daughter, Gina, lived to this day. She lived for 18 months after being told she had just five weeks, and spent her remaining time studying medicine and just having fun. 

Giallombardo held a photo of her daughter, and wore a custom shirt that said “Team Gina.” When Sullivan accidently called her Gina, she wasn’t offended; instead, she was happy. “Don’t apologize,” she told him. “I love to hear her name. That’s why we do this — to keep their memories alive.”

For more information, go to themaryruchalskifoundation.org or lifeforgina.wixsite.com/smiles.