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The Saturday night event features appetizers, a buffet dinner, cake & beverages (wine, beer and soda). Bella Campania is donating food and Inserra ShopRite the soda and centerpieces.
Joan D’Alessandro white butterfly monument Hillsdale
A short documentary will also be shown on the creation of a white butterfly garden at the Hillsdale train station in the name of Joan D’Alessandro, a 7-year-old Brownie Scout who was murdered by a neighbor on April 19th (Holy Thursday), 1973.
Proceeds will go towards the lighting system, bulb plantings and maintenance of the White Butterfly Sculpture and Garden, which represents child safety awareness.
Funds also will go to at-risk youth at the Holley Center in Hackensack and the YAP program in Park Ridge.
A “White Butterfly” song and another written specifically for Joan will both be played. Speakers inclued a retired Parole Board chairperson and the author of a book on child safety.
There will also be a silent auction, raffles, door prizes and more.
Rosemarie D’Alessandro established the foundation in memory of her daughter and was the driving force behind the sculpture and garden.
“Her life and death inspired a movement to keep her killer in prison and spurred four law changes,” D’Alessandro once told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Joan’s legacy is more alive today than it ever was.
“It is a force for good in today’s society.”
Joan D’Alessandro
WHEN: 6 – 10 p.m. THIS SATURDAY
WHERE: Elks Lodge, 523 Kinderkamack Road, Westwood
DONATION: $65/adults; $30 children
CONTACT: Rosemarie D’Alessandro at (201) 664-9140 or rosebd@email.com
IF YOU CAN’T COME BUT WANT TO CONTRIBUTE, MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO:
The Joan Angela D’Alessandro Memorial Foundation, Inc. 45 Florence St., Hillsdale, NJ 07642
Joseph McGowan, a former high school science teacher, was convicted of raping and murdering Joan D’Alessandro before dumping her body in Harriman State Park, where it was found on Easter.
McGowan lived three houses down in their Hillsdale neighborhood, and the youngster had come to his door looking to sell her last two boxes of cookies.
Her murder prompted the passage of Joan’s Law, signed by Gov. Christie Whitman in 1997 and by President Clinton in 1998. It mandates life in prison for the killing of children under 14 during a sex crime.
Because it was adopted after McGowan was sentenced, the law doesn’t apply to him. But he remains in prison for his crimes, having repeatedly been denied parole.
Meanwhile, Rosemarie D’Alessandro has made helping other parents and abused children her life’s mission.
“Inside I knew great things were going to come out of Joan’s life because of the special energy she had, and has, and the fact that she was found on Easter Sunday,” D’Alessandro told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Helping others, she said, “is why I was put on this earth.”
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