By Tammy Scileppi
Since 8-year-old Rocco Lanzer from Maspeth was diagnosed with leukemia several months ago, his friend and martial arts teacher, Sensei Angel Redondo, has been visiting him at North Shore LIJ’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, where the boy is receiving life-saving treatment.
Redondo, or “Mr. R” — as the kids at Maspeth Martial Arts and Fitness call him — keeps reminding his young student, who is a third-grader at PS 153, that everyone back home is thinking about him and rooting for his quick recovery.
While Rocco’s story has quickly spread through social media, the outpouring of support for his family from their close-knit community has been overwhelming, thanks to their concerned neighbor.
Because of Redondo’s ongoing fund-raising efforts, more than $3,400 has been raised so far to help Maria and Michael Lanzer with their son’s medical expenses.
“It’s tough. We’ve been trying to do whatever we can to help them financially with this situation and to bring awareness about Rocco and about leukemia. You have to help people in situations like these ‘cause you never know,” Redondo, himself a father of two, said. “Any illness is close to your family. He was a healthy 8-year-old one day and in just a couple of days it turned.”
Since Rocco’s hair was recently buzzed, Redondo told him: “If you get bald, I’m going to get bald.”
That inspired the martial arts teacher’s plan for a Hair for Rocco event, which is supposed to take place during the Memorial Day Parade on Grand Avenue in Maspeth.
“I’m going to get a hairdresser for the day; $10 donations for haircuts to help the family,” he said.
It’s a long road ahead for Rocco and his doting parents.
“They give him a good prognosis – that in two or so years he’ll be fine; it’s a two-year battle,” Redondo said.
Maspeth Martial Arts is also involved with Relay for Life of Middle Village, which will take place at Juniper Park June 27 – 28.
Kristen Sapienza of Maspeth Federal Savings said it has been a proud sponsor of Relay for Life since 2004.
“Several teams are formed every year to participate in this annual event to support our community and fund-raise for this worthy cause,” she said.
Folks who volunteer will be walking around the park for 24 hours. Each team walks for a certain amount of time then passes the torch to the next team, and so on.
“Everybody goes through rough times in their life. We have to stick together,” Redondo said. “When our country is falling apart, you have to start with the community. As a country, we’re more split than ever. Let’s unite Maspeth and Middle Village; let’s unite Queens and New York. Let’s just help each other out. There’s no other way.”
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