While most Queens teens are looking forward to a summer without school, Charles “CJ” Pullara is on a quest – “I just want to help find a cure for cancer.”
The Ozone Park youth lost his mother, Theresa, to lung cancer in November and since then, he’s become “a catalyst for a lot of fundraising,” according to John Link of the American Cancer Society’s Queens office.
The 13-year-old is a leading member of the organizing committee for a “Relay For Life” to be held overnight on the weekend of June 13 and 14, at Frank M. Charles Memorial Park at the tip of Old Howard Beach.
“We were hoping the event would raise $45,000” Link said. “They’ve already raised close to $75,000 – and their goal is to break $100,000,” he continued, with a trace of admiration in his voice.
The 13-year-old, a seventh grader at P.S. 207, the Rockwood Park School in Howard Beach, has become quite the advocate, raising money and awareness in a campaign against the disease.
He started by recruiting friends, to help raise money in front of local supermarkets on weekends. Not satisfied, he prompted a “Paint the Town Purple” fundraising campaign and mini-walk at the school.
Students donated money to a “dress-down day” exemption from school uniforms, and marched around the building. They raised close to $2,400 for Pullara’s relay team, according to Link.
He and his pals are still campaigning on weekends – according to one report, raising $300 in just three hours.
“His family has really rallied around him,” Link said. “CJ has been an inspiration for the entire community, his father, Charles, and his older sister.”
The park lies between Shellbank Basin and Hawtree Creek at the end of 96th Street, three blocks east of Cross Bay Boulevard on 157th Avenue.
Registration for the event begins at 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 13. The Opening Ceremony and Cancer Survivor’s Lap begins at 6 p.m.
Perhaps the most dramatic part of these events, the “Luminaria Ceremony,” begins at 10 p.m., when hundreds of candles will light the path overnight for the relay teams. Closing Ceremonies are on Sunday, June 14 at 7 a.m.
Pullara has even recruited Congressmember Anthony Weiner to the cause – in a meeting about tobacco legislation. Weiner came away impressed with the “remarkable young man,” saying “I’m proud to know him,” in published reports.
For Pullara, it isn’t about him at all.
“I don’t want any other children to have to go through what I did.”
