Cruisin for Kids Featured on LoHud

Article Written by Jane Lerner

THIELLS — It was hard to tell who was having the most fun at Saturday’s annual Crusin’ for Kids event — car owners showing off their vehicles, spectators eyeing the automotive beauties or little Gabrielle DiCarlo. For the 5-year-old Stony Point girl, the event was more than a fun day with a bounce house and other activities. It was a way for the community to show its support for the battle she has been waging since February against a rare form of cancer.


“It means so much to us that so many people — even strangers — care,” said Nicole DiCarlo, Gabrielle’s mother.




The little girl, the couple’s third and youngest daughter, was diagnosed in February with neuroblastoma, a cancerous tumor that in her case attached itself to her adrenal gland and grew through her bloodstream to her heart. She had a marathon 12-hour surgery followed by a 62-day stay at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at New York-Presbyterian.

Round after round of chemotherapy has followed, with more planned.

But Gabby obviously didn’t have that on her mind as she played with other children and looked at the classic cars in the parking lot of North Rockland High School. The little girl, who will turn 6 in September, wore a wide-brimmed floppy hat over her hairless head and was all smiles.

Her parents said that support from the community is helping them through the ordeal.

“I tell everybody, ‘If you smile, she’ll smile,’ ” said her father, Dominic.

 “We know... it means a lot to the families that a group of strangers show that they care,” said organizer Bob DuBois of Neighborhood Cruisers, a nonprofit organization founded in 2001. “We wish we could do more.”

All proceeds will benefit the DiCarlo family.

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