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Several dozen families and children attended the 2024 Candlelighters NYC Childhood Cancer Foundation Christmas party for some much-needed comfort and joy, which included a visit from none other than St. Nick himself.
The NYPD’s 86th Precinct was transformed into a winter wonderland for the event Sunday morning, decked out in festive decorations as Christmas carols filled the air.
Children’s faces lit up like Christmas trees as motorcycle NYPD patrol officers took them for a lap around Central Park in their sidecar, while FDNY members dressed up in superhero costumes to the youngsters’ delight.
For most of the families and children in attendance, many of whom were in the midst of fighting — or had previously fought — battles with cancer, the foundation has been a lifeline both before and after their treatment.
Among them was 17-year-old Joseph Maroney, a cancer survivor who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 6.
“The treatment was definitely a struggle. It was very out of nowhere,” the teen told The Post.
The disease wreaked havoc on the teen’s mobility, forcing him to use a walker and then a wheelchair before ultimately having to learn to walk again. He went into remission in March, 2014 after receiving a bone marrow transplant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Now an 11th-grader at Wellington C. Mepham High School on Long Island, Maroney says he wants to be a police officer one day.
“The Candlelighters have always been a very big support … It’s like another family,” he shared.
His parents agreed. They said they found the Candlelighters online after he received his diagnosis.
“We’re very grateful for what Candlelighters does for our family … We’re lucky enough that our kid is 11 years in remission,” Joseph’s mother and teacher, Gemma Maroney, 40, said the Christmas party is an opportunity to help them give back to other families still going through what they did.
Rachel Wilson, 44, her husband, Ryan, 47, were also in attendance with their two daughters, Giuliana, 13, and Giovanna, 9.
In 2016, at eight-and-a-half months old, Giovanna was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that forms in immature nerve cells. She went into remission in 2019 and has been cancer-free for about half a decade.
Originally from the suburbs of Kansas City, the Wilsons relocated to the Upper East Side in 2021, in part to be closer to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
“We were treated in Kansas City first and then they said there was nothing more that they could do,” Rachel stated, saying she refused to take the bad news lying down.
“I said ‘I do not accept.’ And so we sought treatment at MSK a week and a half later. We’ve been here ever since,” she said.
Wilson, who later joined the Candelighters after moving to New York, now serves as the organization’s vice president. She led the efforts on coordinating the day’s activities.
Her husband, Ryan, said the Candlelighters helped their family navigate the worst part of their lives.
“They welcomed us in right away and immediately made New York like our home away from home. They changed everything for us.”
Giovanna, who’s in third grade and is looking forward to the holiday break, said she wants a pug for Christmas. The youngster said it was “nice” to spend the afternoon with other kids like her, and that her favorite part of the Christmas party was riding in a NYPD motorcycle sidecar through Central Park.
“Outside there was kind of like a go cart thing where they had a motorcycle attached with a little thing that everyone rode,” she said.
“And then there was a magician. There was also food outside and you could go in the ambulance and you got to see the police officers come in on the motorcycles and Santa in the police car.”
Kids lined the parking lot for the main event — a visit from Santa, who arrived via an NYPD squad car after being escorted by a motorcade of highway patrol motorcycles.
For the police department, the event is a great way to spread some holiday magic to families having a rough go during a time of year usually marked by happiness and fun.
“What we want to do is give the kids the opportunity to have Christmas,” community affairs officer Luis Moreira said.
“A lot of these people are going through a lot of hardship and pain. But this gives an opportunity to say, you know what? This year I had an actual Christmas. And that’s what our goal is here.”
Barbara Zobian founded Candlelighters 17 years ago, which has been supporting families across the country who come to New York to receive cancer treatment ever since.
“They come to Candlelighters New York City and we become their family,” Zobian said.