Lighting the night for loved ones

Kayla Nietsch, 12, with her mother, Julie, is fundraising in memory of her late grandparents.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

Kayla Nietsch designed a poster to educate others about her mitzvah project. Included are photos of her with her late grandparents, Barbara and Sheldon.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

Kayla said her grandmother encouraged her to begin dancing.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

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Kayla Nietsch has walked in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk at Eisenhower Park for the past five years in memory of her grandparents, longtime East Meadow residents Sheldon and Barbara Rossoff, who died within 18 months of each other in 2008 and 2009, both of lymphoma. In that span, Kayla’s team — aptly named Team Rossoff — has raised more than $26,000 for the LLS, the world’s largest nonprofit health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, according to its website.

So when the time came for Kayla, 12, to choose a meaningful cause for her mitzvah project, ahead of her bat mitzvah next year, there was never any doubt. Only this year, she is stepping up her fundraising efforts.

Kayla will walk in the Light the Night Walk again on Oct. 18 with her mother, Julie, her father, Brian, and her younger sister, Nicole, 9, with even higher goals: She’s aiming to raise $6,000 by herself. She is also hosting a fundraiser at the East Meadow AMF Lanes on Aug. 22 to benefit the LLS.

Though Kayla was very young when her grandparents died, she said she could not have been closer to them. Barbara was 67 when she died in January 2008, and Sheldon was 74 when he died in August 2009.

Kayla, who will be a seventh-grader at Seaford Middle School next month, couldn’t hold back tears when talking about them, but she lit up with a giant smile when recalling fond memories, including playing board games with her grandfather even when he was too sick to be on his feet, and watching movies all night with her grandmother during sleepovers.

After their deaths, Kayla said, she was motivated to learn more about their disease, which helped her build close relationships with members of the LLS’s Long Island chapter. “I wanted to know why this happened to my grandparents,” she said. “Out of everyone in the world … my grandparents.”

She is still adjusting to life without them, which is what makes the annual walk especially meaningful for her. “I know they’re there … walking with us,” Kayla said. “It means so much to me.”