Borough Hall goes gold for childhood cancer

Brooklyn Borough Hall joined the likes of the Coney Island Parachute Jump, the Freedom Tower and all of Bay Ridge on Monday, September 15 as it officially went gold in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness month.

“When Brooklyn Borough Hall goes gold for childhood cancer awareness, our entire borough will beam with a spirit of solidarity for our young people suffering from this deadly disease,” said Borough President Eric Adams, who used the event to announce legislation he is promoting that would use money raised from vanity license plate sales for research and treatment to help combat the disease. “Awareness is an important part of the fight against childhood cancer, as it reawakens us to the horrors these children and their families must endure and the commitment we must make to funding research that will find a cure.”

The decision to “go gold” – not just for one night, but for the entire week – came on the heels of the Empire State Building’s refusal to participate in New Hampshire resident Tony Stoddard’s Gold World Project, a movement he founded in loving memory of his son, Cole, who passed away at the age of five due to Neuroblastoma.

“The caring act of a gold Borough Hall lighting by Borough President Eric Adams is very meaningful to all of us at Frankie’s Mission and to so many parents and advocates who are working every day to make a better world for families touched by childhood cancer,” said Bay Ridge resident Camille Orrichio Loccisano, president and founder of Frankie’s Mission and mother of Francesco Loccisano, who succumbed to childhood cancer just weeks after his 17th birthday.

“When my son, Frankie, lost his life to cancer, many others lost as well. Those who would have known him and shared beautiful moments of life with him are also cheated,” she said. “All the children who passed should be here living healthy and happy lives as productive members of the community. Childhood cancer ended that. Now it is time for us to end childhood cancer.”

Adams joined with colleagues in government, and the many friends and families of Brooklyn touched by childhood cancer – including Ridgeite Matt Kabel, pediatric cancer advocate and father to two-year-old Sally Kabel, currently undergoing treatment for infant leukemia – at 6:30 p.m. Monday night to “go gold” and tell fighters, past and present, that Brooklyn’s got their backs.