Signal Hill Elementary School hosted its third annual bandana day last month and raised $1,940 for the Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation by selling the head cloths.
The day was hosted by fourth-grade teacher Danielle Sirianni, who helped create the event at Signal Hill.
“It’s a wonderful foundation and something the students look forward to supporting each year,” she said in a statement.
Gisele DiNatale, president and co-founder of the Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation, said Sirianni’s inspiration for bandana day was her mother’s volunteer work sewing pillows for the organization.
The township-based foundation – which supports hospitalized and critically ill teens – was created by DiNatale and her husband Mario after the passing of their 17-year-old daughter Alicia from cancer in 2002. In addition to bandanas, the foundation creates art carts, teen kits and bandana pillows, and has funded 68 teen rooms in area hospitals.
Bandana day – now celebrated at other area schools – relates to a classroom school incident when Alicia was ill and told to remove her bandana. After she died, her classmates proposed the day to honor her memory and, DiNatale said, to support kids with cancer and anyone who is different.
The effort not only raises awareness, she added, but makes the point that sick kids should not be judged by their appearance or their illness.
Signal Hill’s first bandana day raised $1,350 in 2024 and $1,370 the following year. Bandanas sell for $3 to $5 each and are sometimes donated to students.
“We’re not in it just to raise money,” DiNatale noted, “we’re in it to just really create awareness.”
According to its website, the foundation also raises money with a golf day, gala and wine tasting, all of which strain its staff of only two. It gets help from five adult volunteers who sew pillows and create welcome kits every week, and up to 20 who help out at foundation events.
Fourth-graders at Signal Hill Elementary on bandana day, a cause their teacher says they look forward to each year.
