Check out what we’re doing to further pediatric brain tumor awareness, research, and how we’re supporting the community!
Please consider donating so we can continue making our impact!
AUGUST 2026: Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River Ice Cream Truck!
We were fortunate to be able to donate an ice cream truck from Uncle Louie G’s in Park Ridge, NJ to bring some smiles (and much needed ice cream) to the campers and staff at Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River. Click on the photo to see Sunrise's Instagram and some smiley faces!
Isabella attended Sunrise Day Camp in 2013 with her sister Brianna. It is a special camp that provides free of charge camp services to children with cancer and their siblings. They are dedicated to bringing fun, inclusivity, and hope to the pediatric cancer community and we are proud to be able to support them once again.
MAY 2026: Research Grant to the Children’s Brain Tumor Project
We provided a $20,000 grant to the Children’s Brain Tumor Project (CBTP) this May to continue to support their research towards rare brain tumors, much like Bella’s. The CBTP is “powered by families.” Bella’s picture remains hanging in their research lab alongside the many other children whose families have donated to this necessary work. Her photo remains as a reminder to the importance of continued research and the WHY behind their unique mission. Click HERE to learn more about the CBTP!
JULY 2022: Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River Mac and Cheese Lunch!
We were fortunate to be able to donate a mac and cheese lunch alongside the Ballan family bring some smiles to the campers and staff at Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River. Check out the link below to see photos and some smiley faces!
Isabella attended Sunrise Day Camp in 2014 with her sister Brianna. It is a special camp that provides free of charge camp services to children with cancer and their siblings. They are dedicated to bringing fun, inclusivity, and hope to the pediatric cancer community and we are proud to be able to support them once again.
JULY 2019: Bringing Bathing Suits to Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River!
In summer of 2019, board member Brianna Romano volunteered as a Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River camp counselor. During her time there, she grew incredibly close with the children and staff at Sunrise and noticed that they had a lack of extra bathing suits. Sunrise Day Camp is dedicated to providing free camp services to children with cancer and their siblings and one of the most beloved activities is pool time. Children would often come to camp forgetting their bathing suit, or did not have one at home.
In order to make camp more accessible and enjoyable for the children, The Isabella Rose Romano Foundation donated nearly 100 bathing suits in all sizes for children. We are proud to continually be able to support this incredible camp.
MARCH 2018: Research Grant to the Children’s Brain Tumor Project
We provided a $15,000 research grant to The Children's Brain Tumor Project at Weill Cornell Medicine. The CBTP is "powered by families" and we are proud to be one of many family foundations supporting this ground breaking research project dedicated to researching many types of high grade brain tumors, such as thalamic gliomas, the tumor Isabella was diagnosed with. We have a great deal of faith in the advances the CBTP has made to date and we are delighted to be able to continue to support the project in memory of Isabella.
OCTOBER 2017: Care Packages to the Valley Hospital Butterflies Hospice Care Program
Brianna, Isabella’s Big Sister, personally delivered 45 care packages to the Valley Hospital Butterflies hospice care program. The Butterflies hospice program is a program for families with Children in home hospice care and also includes the journey’s grief support program for siblings of the children in hospice care.
These care packages were created with extra consideration of the siblings of the program in mind. Each gift was personally packed, by Brianna, and included a journal, art supplies, a stuffed friend and a hand written note from Brianna. This project had a great deal of meaning to Brianna and she managed the entire project on her own. She selected and ordered the contents of the gifts, with her own experiences in mind. When she was creating the packages, she intentionally chose to incorporate items that encouraged the therapeutic values of journaling and art and also wanted to create a gift that was for all ages. She hopes they will bring a small token of joy and comfort to the children who receive them.
We’d like to extend a special thank you to Rose, from the Valley Hospice Program, for allowing us to donate to the program and for distributing the packages on Brianna’s behalf. We really appreciate her help in getting these gifts to these special families.
JANUARY 2017: Research Grant to the Children’s Brain Tumor Project
We provided a $10,000 research grant to The Children's Brain Tumor Project at Weill Cornell Medicine.
The Children’s Brain Tumor Project (CBTP), co-directed by Dr. Mark Souweidane & Dr. Jeffrey Greenfield, studies the rarest types of inoperable Brain Tumors, such as DIPG, AR/RT, and Thalamic Gliomas. In recent years the CBTP, through specific family funding, were able to launch the 'Thalamic Glioma Registry' allowing the project to gather information about thalamic glioma patients and further use that information to locate tumor tissue samples for research. With this information the CBTP is now in a position to begin work on what will be an ongoing ‘Thalamic Glioma Project’ –the first such effort of this type. Please click HERE to learn more about the Thalamic Glioma Project.
The Children's Brain Tumor Project is "Powered by Families". The majority of all the funding they receive is from families, like ours, that know firsthand the need for this research and the importance of each diagnosed child's life. We are extremely excited to become one of the families that powers the CBTP with financial support, because the research they are conducting is as rare as the diagnosis and directly aligned with the goals we established for the Isabella Rose Romano Foundation. Please click the CBTP logo above to learn more about the Children’s Brain Tumor Project.
DECEMBER 2015: Donation to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC)
The Isabella Rose Romano Foundation had the honor of presenting its first ever donation to support pediatric brain cancer research. We provided $15,000 of funding to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), specifically to support the funding for critical immune monitoring studies of pediatric brain cancer patients' response to a first-of-it's-kind immunotherapy protocol being conducted under the supervision of MSKCC's pediatric oncologist, Dr. Ira Dunkel MD.
Quoting from the MSKCC proposal for funds: "In 2015, approximately 4,600 children and adolescents in the United States will be newly diagnosed with brain and spinal cord tumors, known collectively as central nervous system (CNS) tumors. As a group, CNS tumors are the second-most common pediatric malignancy and the most prevalent solid tumor in children. Developing effective treatments for these tumors is arguably the major unmet need in the field of pediatric oncology."
The Isabella Rose Romano Foundation was created, with the primary mission of supporting ground breaking research towards better treatment options for these types of tumors. We have a great deal of respect and faith in the potential advances MSK could achieve with this study. We are delighted to be able to provide this financial support!
JULY 2015: Donation to Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River
We provided a $5000 donation to Sunrise Day Camp Pearl River to support their mission and help fund the ability for more campers to attend. Sunrise Day Camp is a camp exclusively for children with cancer and their siblings. Sunrise allows the children to continue their medical treatment and enjoy the comfort and safety of their own homes at night while being able to attend . They recognise that cancer affects the entire family with siblings often feeling left out; siblings are welcome to attend camp, giving them the opportunity to connect with the siblings of other sick children and allowing them to escape the stresses of living with a sick sibling. Most importantly, they provide these services entirely free of charge to families.
Sunrise is a special place for our family. During summer of 2014, Isabella and her older sister Brianna attended Sunrise. Sunrise quickly became a family for them. Bella enjoyed her new friends and being able to participate like every other kid. The staff at Sunrise made every accommodation necessary to assist Isabella in getting around, assuring that she could attend comfortably with all of the special assistance she required. Brianna also attended camp. It was a place she looked forward to attending each day, at a time when it was difficult to find happiness amongst the complications of our daily life.
