The Alex Mandarino Foundation in St. Joseph has made a $75,000 donation to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York to help support childhood cancer research.
Foundation President and co-founder Tony Mandarino tells us the organization was founded to help honor his son, 5-year-old Alex, who died from cancer in 2013 after a courageous battle. Through their experience with Alex, Tony and Katie Mandarino learned most pediatric cancer treatments have not significantly improved in the past 30 years.
“Through our journey, when Alex was diagnosed, we found how underfunded pediatric cancer research is,” Tony said. “So from kind of humble beginnings, we decided to kind of do our part.”
The Alex Mandarino Foundation has been raising money to help ever since. After careful consideration, it selected the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as the recipient of its latest grant. Tony says Alex was treated there.
“It’s probably the kind of premier center, if you will, for neuroblastoma and literally families from the entire globe come to Sloan Kettering for that type of treatment.”
The Alex Mandarino Foundation raises funds through word of mouth and through community events. Perhaps most well known is Alex’s Duck Duck Run, which was just held Father’s Day weekend in St. Joseph. They also release a special beer each year with North Pier Brewing Company.
You can learn more about the Alex Mandarino Foundation right here.
