A sea of purple shirts descended upon the Voorhees Town Center on Jan. 19 when the Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation held a day service event to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the start of national Teen Cancer Awareness Week.
Hundreds of members of the public, most of them teenagers themselves, were on hand at the event to give back by making “cards of encouragement,” crafting “bandana bracelets” and assembling “teen kits” for other teenagers with cancer.
Even members of the South Jersey Ballet Company did their part to bring awareness to teens with cancer by performing multiple flash mob dances for those simply walking throughout the town center.
“Our goals for the week are to create as much awareness as we can to hospitalized adolescents who fit a different population than the traditional younger child that goes to the hospital,” ARVF co-founder Gisele DiNatale said.
AVRF was founded 12 years ago after Alicia Rose DiNatale, daughter of Gisele and Voorhees Deputy Mayor Mario DiNatale, passed away from cancer at the age of 16.
During Alicia’s time in the hospital, she was disappointed that there was no real place for teenaged patients to spend their time, so Alicia’s parents honored her memory by starting the ARVF non-profit, with the goal of installing a “teen lounge” at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where Alicia underwent 13 months of chemotherapy treatments and procedures.
More than a decade and 61 teen lounges at hospitals throughout the country later, the foundation continues its work trying to improve the time spent by teens in hospitals through methods such as lounges, sponsoring social events and shipping close to 2,000 teen kits a year.
DiNatale describes the teen kits, which were diligently assembled during the service event, as cinch sacks filled with comfort items and programming designed to distract and entertain teens while in the hospital.
Typical kits include games, crafts, night-lights, a deck of cards, lip balm, mints and even just socks that are decorated with cartoon characters typical of many children’s hospitals.
“They like that because when you’re newly diagnosed and you have to spend a week, some many weeks in the hospital, it’s just nice to have something that’s a little older and not so babyish for yourself,” DiNatale said.
One teenager at the event helping assemble teen kits was Voorhees resident Molly Grossman, a 17-year-old Eastern High School senior and member of the Alicia Rose Student Advisory Board.
Grossman, who is in her seventh year working with the foundation, said that although she didn’t personally know Alicia, they lived in the same community and went to all the same schools, and having learned that they were both very outgoing and social people, Grossman has tried to view things how Alicia might have.
“What kept me staying really involved was seeing the impact that it has on these kids and how different their experiences in the hospital were than Alicia’s,” Grossman said. “I know Gisele believes this would have been such a great thing for Alicia to have, so I’m more than thrilled to be able to give it to other teens and other peers.”
Grossman said she hoped others her age will continue to volunteer and reach out to those among them that are sick and dealing with illness, so no one has to feel alone.
“That’s the most important part — that you’re not alone,” Grossman said. “Even if they don’t personally know you, people care about your fight.”
DiNatale echoed Grossman’s sentiments, and said the kids at the Jan. 19 event “get it” and they know they could have just as easily been one of the teens the foundation helps.
“They either know someone or they can put themselves in the mindset of what it would be like if they couldn’t go to school,” DiNatale said. “Here they have a day off, but kids in the hospital, it’s not a day off for them, so I think they feel really good about being able to help.”
