Katherine Gadek-Joannou has always loved Halloween. Each year she transforms her Merrick home into a festive display and carefully selects costumes for herself and her daughter.
But this October, her passion for the holiday moved beyond her own front yard. Gadek-Joannou, a registered nurse, competed in the “Colossal’s Face of Halloween Competition,” a national contest that pairs a person’s passion for the spooky holiday with fundraising for the Starlight Children’s Foundation, which supports seriously ill children.
Her first foray into the contest was a successful one. She was a part of the competition for several weeks surviving multiple rounds of cuts, including one that ended on Oct. 2, when she received enough votes to finish second in her group.
The contest has stretched across three or four weeks, with the field being narrowed in stages — from 20 to 15, to 10 contestants in her group — and she has made each cut along the way. Unfortunately, Gadek-Johnson fell short in the most recent vote on Oct. 6, but her experience was extremely positive nonetheless.
The winner of the contest receives $13,000, a feature article in “Rue Morgue” magazine, and the opportunity to go on a ghost hunt with actor Kane Hodder, who played Jason Vorhees in the “Halloween” movie series and meet Emmy-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
“I go out of my way for Halloween,” she said. “My daughter always has the best costumes, and my house is full of decorations. That’s really why I joined.”
But the contest was about more than costumes and votes. The Starlight Children’s Foundation, brings joy to hospitalized children through toys, games, and special visits, and Gadek-Joannou, 49, said this mission resonates deeply with her because of her own health journey.
“That means a lot to me because I was very sick as a child,” she said. “I was a preemie, born three months early, and I spent a long time in the hospital. Throughout my childhood I was constantly sick, constantly admitted. I know exactly what these kids are feeling. I’ve lived it.”
Her start in life was a precarious one. She weighed just two pounds and half an ounce at birth and required heart surgery within days. Doctors discovered that one of her heart valves hadn’t connected correctly, and they were able to repair it when she was just three days old — a surgery she still calls ‘miraculous.’
Her birth came suddenly and without warning.
“It was completely unexpected,” she said. “My mother was home, and my father was away in New Jersey helping family. My aunt rushed over to get her to the hospital around two in the morning. Not long after, I was born. Shortly after that I had surgery, and I stayed in an incubator for at least six months, maybe longer.”
Her early years were marked by frequent hospital stays, chronic illnesses, and repeated surgeries. Pneumonia returned periodically, likely a result of underdeveloped lungs, and she often had trouble breathing. Through her childhood and teenage years, Gadek-Joannou underwent multiple operations, including spinal surgery for scoliosis and jaw reconstruction.
She recalls feeling as if “every few years there was something” new to endure.
Those experiences helped shape her career path. She remembers watching nurses during her many hospital stays and realizing she wanted to follow in their footsteps.
“Being in the hospital so much, I watched what the nurses did,” she said. “I thought, I want to do that too. I want to help someone else like me.”
She became a nurse specializing in critical care. Today, she works in a virtual program for Northwell Health as an electronic intensive care unit nurse, who works from a centralized location to remotely monitor and support patients in intensive care units using telemedicine technology.
“I left the bedside right before the pandemic because of my spine. It was getting worse, so I needed to step back physically,” she said. “I thought, ‘What do I have to lose? Let me try virtual nursing.’ I’ve been doing it since. We work with ICU and ER units across Northwell, helping 24/7. We see monitors, use cameras to check on patients, and talk to families. It’s very innovative and interesting.”
Her health struggles, however, are not behind her. Gadek-Joannou lives with Cushing’s syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder caused by a tumor.
“I’m not completely healthy,” she said. “I have Cushing’s syndrome, which many people don’t know about. Mine is caused by a small brain tumor. It’s an autoimmune disorder, so my body fights against itself. I have bone degeneration, high blood pressure, high blood sugar — everything seems to happen because of it.”
Despite this, her family provides daily support. Her husband, Robert, works as an electrician, and her 12-year-old daughter, Izabella, has grown up understanding her mother’s challenges.
“She’s aware of everything,” Gadek-Joannou said of her daughter. “She takes it day by day. She knows I’m fighting to get healthy and trying to get better. She sees that every day.”
The Starlight Foundation, she added, reminds her of moments from her own childhood in hospitals.
“Because of what I went through as a child, I know how important their work is,” she said. “I remember foundations that gave out toys around Christmas, and I still have my teddy bear from then. Those memories stick with you. Things like games, toys, even people dressing up and visiting children in the hospital — that brightens the day. It’s wonderful.”
Through all of her struggles, Halloween has remained a joyful escape.
“You get to dress up and be someone else,” she said. “That’s the greatest thing. If I could do it every day, I would. One year I made my own zombie nurse costume from scratch. I ordered an old nurse’s apron from the early 1900s and turned it into a costume. That was pretty nifty.”
Gadek-Joannou hasn’t yet decided what she will be for Halloween this year, but she has already made plans for Izabella’s outfit, a character from an “Kakigori” Asian book series that wears a private schoolgirl outfit, complete with a jacket, tie, and skirt.
