Making Headway Foundation

10/06/2026

A Night of Giving: One Community, Two Causes.
This event honors the special lives and legacies of Holden Trent (1999-2024) and Peter Barbieri (1998- 2024), two remarkable young men whose strength, spirit, and love continue to inspire everyone who knew them.

Date: November 7, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Place: John Caboto Club, 46 Purdy Street, Harrison, NY 10528

All proceeds from the event will equally benefit two organizations making a real difference: Making Headway Foundation (provides care and comfort for children with brain and spinal cord tumors, while funding medical research geared to better treatments and a cure) and Goal 13 (empowers young people through mentorship, education, and community programs that build confidence, resilience, and opportunity).

Learn more, register, or donate today: https://givebutter.com/a-night-of-giving-one-community-two-causes-vnbkpf

By coming together, we celebrate Peter and Holden’s memory in the most powerful way possible: by helping others. Your participation—whether through attendance, donation, or sponsorship—directly supports families facing unimaginable challenges and young people striving for a brighter future. This event is more than a fundraiser. It’s a tribute, a community moment, and a chance to carry forward kindness, courage, and generosity.

Organized by Maria Esposito and Gina Evangelista with support of family & friends.

By Maria Esposito and Gina Evangelista with support of family & friends

10/01/2026

If you are anywhere on Long Island, this Friday, October 2, come to Happauge High School for the 19th Annual Kicks For Cancer. Beyond the soccer games, the night is a true community celebration. Families can enjoy delicious food from local trucks, shop at vendor tents filled with gifts and treats, and join in activities such as raffles and bounce houses. Most importantly, the event raises funds for Making Headway and other cancer research organizations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pQMEpokmio&t=49s

Kicks For Cancer is in honor of Courtney Tomkin, a Hauppauge student who was diagnosed with brain cancer at just 17 years old. Inspired by Courtney’s courage, Alexis Gonzalez, then the girls' varsity soccer goalkeeper, approached Coach Jesseca Kulesa with the idea of supporting Courtney and her family. What began as one heartfelt idea has grown into a powerful symbol of Hauppauge pride, compassion, and community spirit.

If you can't attend, but still want to support pediatric brain tumor research, visit www.MakingHeadway.org/donate

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/28/2026

September is Child Cancer Awareness Month

As National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, we all must take a moment to recognize the children and families facing cancer, remember those we have lost, and remind ourselves why this fight matters.

This month, and every month, we ask you to remember these children.
- Remember the families spending nights in hospital rooms.
- Remember the children whose lives have been forever interrupted by cancer.
- Remember the parents hoping for better answers.
- Remember the survivors, and remember the children that we have lost.

Childhood cancer may be rare, but for the families living through it, it is everything. During Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, please consider supporting Making Headway and helping us continue to provide critical services to children and families when they need them most.

Donate Today to Help Children with Cancer
MakingHeadway.org/Donate
CARE, COMFORT, CURE

09/11/2026

Making Headway's Free Legal Services Program for Families Is Now Available.
When a child is diagnosed with a brain tumor, families are suddenly forced to navigate not only overwhelming medical decisions, but also a complex web of potential legal issues. Parents may need help securing insurance coverage, accessing disability benefits, protecting employment rights while taking time off for caregiving, arranging guardianship or estate planning, and ensuring appropriate school accommodations during treatment and recovery. Making Headway Foundation is now offering free legal support services through a partnership with New York Legal Assistance Group. To learn more about this program and see if you are eligible, click the following link or contact us at 914-238-8384 or [email protected].

09/04/2026

Surviving Is Not the End of the Story: Inside the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. [Summary]: Surviving childhood cancer is only the beginning of the journey. The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, one of the longest-running studies of its kind, has shown that treatments received during childhood can have health effects decades later, making lifelong follow-up and survivorship care essential. As more children survive cancer, we must continue working toward not only helping them survive, but ensuring they can live healthy and fulfilling lives long after treatment ends.

Surviving Is Not the End of the Story: Inside the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study - The larger picture in pediatric oncology

08/28/2026

The Monday Night NFL Football Pool To Benefit Making Headway is Back!

Join our football pool for a chance to win while helping children diagnosed with brain and spinal cord tumors.

Buy Your Box Today at https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E5676&id=38

Please feel free to forward this to your friends. The more people who participate, the more we raise for Making Headway.

This game is a standard 10X10 grid with 100 boxes. Each box is $100 and will cover every Monday night football game this season. At the end of each game, there will be one winner determined by the final score, and that person wins $250. There is no deadline to sign up, but if you sign up before week 1 (September 14), you will have the most chances to win.

08/24/2026

Consensus Roadmap Guides Clinical Trials for Rare Childhood CNS Tumors.
https://bioengineer.org/consensus-roadmap-guides-clinical-trials-for-rare-childhood-cns-tumors/

Rare childhood central nervous system tumors have exposed one of the most stubborn weaknesses in modern oncology: science can move faster than the clinical-trial systems needed to test it. The paper focuses on a problem that affects thousands of children worldwide but involves so many biologically distinct tumor types that conventional trial design often fails before recruitment even begins.
https://bioengineer.org/consensus-roadmap-guides-clinical-trials-for-rare-childhood-cns-tumors/

Rare childhood central nervous system tumours have exposed one of the most stubborn weaknesses in modern oncology: science can move faster than the clinical-trial systems needed to test it. A new

08/21/2026

DIPG Close to Home: Beyond Radiation, The Research Seeking a Future for Children with DIPG

In the first installment of DIPG Close to Home, The Citizen told the story of Rosalie, who was given nine months to live after her diagn ...

08/03/2026

With partial support from Making Headway Foundation, a new report was just published, in the medical journal Neuro-Oncology Pediatrics, titled Pre-treatment Monocytosis in Pediatric H3K27M-Mutant Gliomas.

This is the first study to identify pre-treatment monocytosis and elevated MLR in pediatric H3K27M-mutant gliomas, highlighting a novel systemic immune phenotype with potential implications for biomarker discovery and immunotherapeutic targeting.
Click here for the full report visit: https://makingheadway.org/published (it is the most recent listing)

Layman's Summary (AI generated)
This study found that children with H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline gliomas had significantly higher monocyte counts in their blood before any treatment compared with children who had pilocytic astrocytomas, a less aggressive brain tumor. These findings identify monocytosis as a potential biomarker for H3K27M-mutant gliomas and suggest that immune system changes may play an important role in the disease, warranting further research into targeted immunotherapies and improved prognostic tools.

Special Thanks to all the authors, especially our friends at NYU Langone (Eveline Teresa Hidalgo, Matija Snuderl, Jessica Clymer, Devorah Segal, David Harter, Hannah Weiss, and Eric A. Grin).

AbstractBackground. Systemic immune dysregulation is well-characterized in adult high-grade gliomas but remains underexplored in pediatric population. Amon

07/14/2026

Making Headway Foundation is co-sponsoring NYU Langone's first-ever teen and young adult survivorship event for those diagnosed with a brain or spinal cord tumor. This is a one-day event, scheduled for Sunday, August 2, 2026, 8:00 am–4:30 pm.

Learn more or sign up at https://nyumc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_25gg6tla6Qyp35c?cid=qr_print_pcc_bst-survivorship-event_registration

Get the latest info for teens and young adults with a brain or spinal cord tumor:
• Lectures on Brain Health, Cancer and Family Planning, Living with Disability
• Patient Experience Panel
• Patient and Caregiver Support Groups

There is no cost to attend this event. A light breakfast and box lunch will be provided. If you were not treated at NYU, you are still invited to attend.

Sunday, August 2, 2026
8:00 am–4:30 pm
NYU Langone Health
550 First Avenue, New York, NY