LI's Olivia Hope Foundation Presents $150K Check To Cohen Children's Medical Center

QUEENS, NY — Olivia Hope Foundation presented a $150K check to Cohen Children's Medical Center in Queens on Wednesday morning.

The foundation, based in Syosset, was created in memory of Olivia Hope LoRusso, who died of acute myeloid leukemia in 2017 at the age of 12.

Shelley LoRusso, Olivia's mother, co-founded the charity with Amy Nikolai, Linda Donato and Lauree Vasta. Olivia's sisters, Gia and Sabrina, are also integral members of the foundation. Olivia Hope Foundation dreams to cure childhood cancer while helping children who are fighting the disease.

Olivia Hope Foundation chose Cohen Children's Medical Center because it is a local hospital, and the foundation's board agrees with the type of research the hospital is conducting, the foundation said.

Cohen Children's Medical Center is researching general pediatric cancer immunology and targeted immunotherapy, Nikolai and Shelley LoRusso said.

Renata Solomou, donor relations and community outreach specialist with Olivia Hope Foundation, was instrumental in bridging the foundation with the hospital, Nikolai said.

"We took a year going back and forth with them, and it culminated in [Wednesday]," Nikolai told Patch.

Nikolai said the check presentation felt "very satisfying."

"It’s amazing," she said. "It is going to open up avenues for us to help more children."

Shelley added, "I think it’s just going to open the doors for us to help even more families, as well as funding research."

Solomou said it is important to provide charity to those who are close to home and in the local community.

"We can’t be more proud and happy to be able to collaborate with finally having a great hospital near Long Island to be affiliated with," Solomou said. "Not only to treat cancer but research."

Solomou said it is important that Cohen Children's Medical Center is striving to find non-toxic cancer treatments for children.

Olivia Hope Foundation of Syosset's sixth annual "Evening of Hope" is scheduled to run from 7 to 11 p.m. May 9 at the Garden City Hotel, at 45 7th St., Garden City. It is the foundation's marquee annual fundraiser, which allows it to make check presentations like the one at Cohen Children's Medical Center.

"We couldn’t do one without the other," Solomou said.

Tickets to the gala are $250 or $175 for those under 21 or 65 and older and can be purchased here.