Friday, January 17, 2025
Reese Gallinaro is a junior at Long Beach High School. She’s young, but she’s already had to go through a lot — twice.
Gallinaro was diagnosed with leukemia twice growing up, being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering. During her treatment time in the hospital, she couldn’t do much, as she was stuck in bed majority of the time. But she did find one thing she could do: build Legos.
“Legos were a big part of my healing process,” she said. “I was stuck in a bed for a lot of my treatment. Legos were one of the things I could do, and I kind of used it as an escape.”
Legos were such a big part of her recovery, she thought they could help others, too. So, she started a toy drive in Long Beach, collecting unopened Lego kits for children going through the same thing she did.
The Long Beach City Council caught wind of what Gallinaro was doing, and decided to aid in the efforts. The council met with Gallinaro at City Hall Tuesday just before the council meeting to share their thoughts and how they are planning to help out.
“It’s difficult enough when a child is suffering from this horrible disease, but it’s the parents who also suffer having to watch the child they love go through this,” Councilman John Bendo said. “Anything that could be done to bring a little extra cheer into that child’s life, maybe make them feel a little better, is an absolutely wonderful thing to do. This is a wonderful thing that Reese is doing, and we hope that everyone gets on board and contributes to make these children’s lives a little bit better.”
Council President Brendan Finn said he hopes Long Beach turns out to help her cause, and believes community members will because “Long Beach always does.”
Gallinaro already had toy collection boxes in the local schools and Bright Eye Beer Co., and now another box has been placed in the City Hall lobby. Each box also has a QR code on it, which people could scan to send the toys directly to the Gallinaro’s house.
Already opened or used Lego sets cannot be donated, though. Since a lot of the children going through treatments are compromised and even more sensitive to germs, they can only accept new, unopened ones.
“This is a perfect time for this, too,” Councilman Mike Reinhart said. “For everybody with kids, you get a lot of Lego presents, and you get a lot of duplicates. So, with the Lego boxes that you buy for Reese’s charitable event here, also think about all the duplicates you get. Don’t take them back to the store, bring them here and drop them off at any of the boxes.”
The toy drive is currently open, and will be running until February 1. The drive means a lot to Gallinaro, and hopes children going through what she did can find any comfort in Legos too.
“Legos were like a big part of my coping with what was going on at that point in my life,” she said. “I was thinking about doing this project for a while now, doing something to give back to the kids.”
