Bake sale fundraiser helps raise money in memory of South Side sophomore Jamison Novello

Jamison Novello was a talented and charismatic girl whose effervescent personality and kindness left a mark on the Rockville Centre community.

The South Side High School sophomore took her own life on March 21, 2019, at age 15, but the memory of her spirit and her passion for dancing lives on, thanks to the efforts of her family and friends, who have helped inspire and create scholarships, fundraisers and the Jamison Novello Still Sparkling Foundation, a nonprofit that helps raise money for suicide awareness and prevention.

“As a parent, this is everyone’s worst nightmare,” her mother, Kimberly McGuigan, told the Herald. “She was one of the kindest people that I’ve ever met.”

The 5th annual bake sale fundraiser in memory of Jamison Novello will take place on Sept. 16, at 35 Burtis Ave. in Rockville Centre. All proceeds raised will go to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and a scholarship fund that McGuigan created in memory of her daughter at the Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan, where Jamison honed her talent.

The fundraiser began as a way to help raise money while celebrating Jamison’s 16th birthday in 2019. McGuigan invited Jamison’s friends and parents in the South Side community to take part in a Sweet 16 Bake Sale, which helped to benefit the scholarship fund and the Long Island Crisis Center.

“Despite being so athletic and so disciplined, she had a real sweet tooth,” McGuigan said. “She would leave candy wrappers all over the place.”

Jamison’s love of sweets, McGuigan said, inspired her to create the bake sale fundraiser, which, over the past five years, has raised more than $40,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, $4,000 for the Long Island Crisis Center, and more than $95,000 for the Jamison Novello Scholarship Fund at the dance center.

The event has raised more money each year. McGuigan said that even during the pandemic, when many gatherings were canceled, the popularity of the bake sale only grew.

“I needed to help, because I knew that was what she would want,” Jamison’s mother said. “It very much hit close to home for people, especially after the pandemic, when people struggled with their mental health.”

The event initially involved Jamison’s friends, but now that many of them are in college, McGuigan keeps the fundraisers going with the help of her own friends, who pitch in to make and sell baked goods to the community.

The scholarship fund money is given to inner-city kids who can’t afford programs like those offered at the dance center. The scholarships help them pursue their dreams and learn to dance under the tutelage of the center’s renowned choreographers.

“It’s an outlet for them,” McGuigan said of why she created the scholarships. “It’s just as important for their mental health.”

In addition to her efforts to raise awareness of suicide and efforts to prevent it, McGuigan previously commissioned a special program for a local Girl Scout Troop in Rockville Centre to promote kindness. Working with Elizabeth Carnaval, a village resident who runs an art enrichment program called Matters of the HeArt, she organized the virtual program Shine Your Light, in which troop members created lanterns to demonstrate the power that kind acts can have on other people.

Most recently, McGuigan said, she has been working with the local law firm Falcon, Rappaport and Berkman, which helped launch the Still Sparkling Foundation pro bono.

“I want to show she’s still shining this light and helping people,” McGuigan said.

The foundation will host its annual Casino Night fundraiser next March, which will raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and other mental health initiatives. The September bake sale will continue to raise money for the scholarship fund.

McGuigan said she planned to broaden the Still Sparkling Foundation’s goals, with more activities involving district schools. “Kids need something where there’s a personal connection,” she said. “Something that the district will allow that can give the kids some information, but also have them be connected to.”

McGuigan includes her three other children, ages 12, 10 and 9, in the Still Sparkling campaign, to honor Jamison and to help them know that it’s OK to talk about her, and remember what a kind person she was.

The bake sale will take place on Sept. 16, at 35 Burtis Ave. in Rockville Centre. For more information on the Still Sparkling Foundation fundraisers and the Jamison Novello Scholarship Fund, go to JamisonsDream.com.