For the Pedone family, gold ribbons displayed across Glen Cove this month carry a meaning that extends far beyond Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. They represent children still undergoing treatment, families navigating diagnoses and a little boy whose smile continues to shape his hometown 13 years after his death.
“We miss Nicholas tremendously every single day,” said Josephine Pedone, whose son, Nicholas, died at age 7, after battling Stage 3 neuroblastoma. “However, the foundation, our supporters, our community really does give us the strength to go forward and to continue to keep Nicholas’s memory and legacy alive.”
In recognition of the month the City of Glen Cove has raised a gold flag outside City Hall and decorated Village Square with gold ribbons and banners. The effort is in partnership with the Glen Cove-based Nicholas Pedone Foundation, which Pedone founded in her son’s memory to support children undergoing cancer treatment and their families.
“Childhood cancer affects entire families, and no parent should ever have to watch a child endure such a difficult fight,” Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck wrote in a statement. “By Going Gold, Glen Cove is honoring the extraordinary courage of these children, remembering those we have lost and reminding families that they are not alone.”
This year’s observance comes on the heels of a significant milestone for the Pedone family. The foundation held its 13th annual Nicholas Pedone 5K at the Glen Cove High School on Aug. 30, which would have been Nicholas’s 21st birthday. It has also been 13 years since the foundation was established after his death.
Before the race’s awards ceremony, the family released 21 balloons, representing a year of a life for his 21st birthday.
“Even though we didn’t get a chance to celebrate his 21st birthday the way we dreamed of,” Pedone said “we did celebrate it together with family, cancer warriors and survivors that we honor every year, families that really understand our journey and what we’ve been through, and our incredible community that has stood behind us for the last 13 years.”
That community support has helped the foundation grow from an effort to help one family into an organization that has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in programs for children with cancer.
The foundation is a care organization rather than a cancer research organization, Pedone said. Its mission is “delivering smiles to courageous kids fighting cancer.”
Through its HOP4Kids program — standing for hospital outreach projects — the foundation works with hospitals to identify projects that can improve the experiences of young patients. In 13 years, Pedone said, the foundation has directed more than $850,000 toward HOP4Kids’ mission.
For those who knew Nicholas, however, the work remains intensely personal. Foundation Treasurer Michelle Capobianco was close friends with the Pedone family before Nicholas became ill. Her son, Thomas, was Nicholas’s best friend.
Nicholas and Thomas spent their childhood playing together, including video games. When Nicholas was hospitalized, Xbox gave him a way to stay connected with friends. Capobianco recalled how difficult it was to explain Nicholas’s illness and eventual death to her young son.
“It was the hardest thing a parent can do,” she said. “Thomas knew that he was sick.”
Thomas still holds on to memories of Nicholas, his mother said. When the boys were in kindergarten and first grade, Thomas struggled with reading and writing while Nicholas excelled, and would help his friend.
“He would wait for Thomas,” Capobianco said. “He would get his lunch for Thomas. He was such a good boy.”
Nicholas’s cousin Anthony Famiglietti, now an executive board member of the foundation, was a 17-year-old senior at Glen Cove High School when Nicholas was diagnosed in 2013. Famiglietti needed to complete a community service project for a class, and with friends and support from faculty members, organized the first Nicholas Pedone 5K.
The goal was to help Nicholas’s parents with the expenses of his cancer battle, including treatment, travel and meals. The first race raised nearly $20,000.
Nicholas died a few months later. The foundation was established shortly afterward, and Famiglietti continued leading the annual 5K. Nicholas was his first cousin, Famiglietti said, but their relationship was closer to that of brothers despite their 10-year age difference.
“It gives me the opportunity to make sure that Nicholas’ life, his smile and his legacy continue to live on,” Famiglietti said, “while also allowing me to turn the pain of losing him into something that can bring hope and happiness to other children and families.”
For Pedone, helping those children has given purpose to a loss her family continues to live with. “Nicholas has been gone for 13 years, but he continues to make such a huge impact,” she said. “He continues to change lives.”
Her son’s defining characteristic, she said, was his smile. Even while he was undergoing treatment, she remembered him facing his illness without showing despair. Bringing that smile to other children became the family’s way of carrying him with them.
“Nicholas is our hero,” she said. “Nicholas continues to inspire us, and his fight and his journey and his smile.”
