Anthony Gallonio is director of student financial services at the Rhode Island School of Design and the founder and executive director of the National GRACE Foundation. (GRACE stands for Growing, Recovering, and Achieving a College Education.) The Rhode Island-based foundation provides free college-admissions and financial-aid counseling to college-bound students who are also cancer survivors. It was created to express the Gallonio family’s gratitude for the successful cancer treatment of Gallonio’s young daughter, Grace, who was treated for a rare cancer at Hasbro Children’s as a one-year-old and who has been cancer-free for more than four years. The foundation also raises money for The Tomorrow Fund and college scholarships through an annual bike-a-thon, the Ride Against Cancer.
PBN: Your daughter Grace’s cancer was still very recent when you started the National GRACE Foundation. How did you find the wherewithal to move from such a difficult experience to taking on a new foundation?
GALLONIO: We started the foundation as way to say thank you to all our friends and family, as well as the Hasbro staff members we encountered who supported us during Grace’s battle with cancer. Quite simply, it’s our way to “pay it forward.” For the first few weeks, Grace was in a medically induced coma and so there was plenty of time to think. I have worked in college admissions and financial aid for over 20 years and thought that I could help these kids battling cancer go to college. After some research, many organizations were found that help with scholarships, grants, etc., but not many that help guide or advocate for these kids through the admissions process. Thus the foundation was born! We provide free college admission and financial aid counseling to pediatric cancer fighters. We are the only organization out there that does what we do! When we started the foundation we never thought we’d grow as fast as it has. We have worked with more than 500 families from all over the country in just three years!
PBN: The foundation assists young people headed to college who are facing a cancer battle in their family at the same time. Have you been moved by some of the stories you’ve heard?
GALLONIO: Every single story I hear is moving! Our foundation writes a lot of advocacy letters to college admissions and financial aid offices. I am often in tears writing them, as I cannot imagine being a teen or a child and have to go through what they have gone through. I have met with a high school athlete who had to stop playing sports because she had to have her tibia removed due to bone cancer. I have met so many kids who one day were just happy, healthy kids and the next they were fighting for their lives. Some have lost eyesight, some have lost their ability to walk and some have had their cognitive abilities impaired. But none of them are angry! They just want to be kids and have the same opportunity to go on to college like their friends!
One that will always stick out for me is a young brain cancer survivor from Johnston. She was diagnosed with brain cancer right before her freshman year in high school. She didn’t set foot in her high school for two years as she underwent chemotherapy, radiation treatments and surgeries. She never gave up. Her family hired a tutor and she was able to catch up on her work and graduate with the class she entered with! During her treatment she started an organization called Tabz4Tomorrow and has raised over $10,000 for The Tomorrow Fund! She started her freshman year at Salve Regina University in September and is loving it!
These kids are amazing and I am blessed to have been able to work with them!
PBN: How has the reception among your fellow admissions, financial aid and academic advising professionals been?
GALLONIO: Nothing short of amazing! You have to remember during the admission season, colleges and universities are being inundated with special requests for admission and financial aid. When we contact these schools or write letters, they are always so receptive to our outreach. We work with kids from all over the country and the willingness from colleges nationwide to help our kids has been amazing! Two schools that stand out locally are Salve Regina University and the University of Rhode Island! They have been amazing in working with our families.
PBN: Your family had a very positive experience with Hasbro Children’s Hospital? What impressed you about the hospital staff’s care of Grace?
GALLONIO: Everything! In this day and age you expect to have good medical care and we certainly received that at Hasbro, but beyond that what always has stood out for us is how they treated us while we there. When Grace was diagnosed with cancer, we were scared and overwhelmed. The doctors, nurses and support staff were there from the beginning. Grace’s surgeon drew on a whiteboard to show our 5 year old where Grace’s tumor was. What an impact that had on her. She could now visualize all that she heard and could put a “face” on Grace’s cancer. It made it so much easier for us to talk to her about it. In fact, she actually made her own drawing of the tumor (mean face and all) as a way for her to process it. We have become lifelong friends with many of Grace’s nurses who were there for us in so many ways. We are so appreciative of all they did for us that we recently established the National GRACE Foundation Nursing Education Fund which will provide funds to allow nurse’s to attend professional development conferences and seminars to ensure that nurses at Hasbro stay on the cutting edge of patient care.
PBN: How did this year’s Ride Against Cancer go, and what are your goals for next year’s?
GALLONIO: Fantastic! The RIde Against Cancer is a bike ride fundraiser during which riders pedal their way on 65, 35, 18 and 6 mile routes through Richmond, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown and Hopkinton. We raised over $40,000 for The Tomorrow Fund, the Isabel Helen Farnum Scholarship for Pediatric Cancer Fighters and the National GRACE Foundation’s College Access Program! This was a 100% increase from our first Ride in 2013.
Our 2015 Ride will be held at the end of September with a goal of $100,000 for our suite of causes as well as Hasbro Children’s Hospital. We can’t wait for September! We’re always looking for sponsors to help with the costs of the RIde so if anyone is interested, please feel free to contact us!
