Love For Luca 5K Run/Walk

05/31/2026

We are at Middletown South this morning for the Tutu Trot! It’s beautiful, come visit us and spin to win!

05/16/2026

We don’t think it’s a coincidence that one partygoer at pre-prom wore his Luca sweatshirt. Luca is always with this crew! 💙 💛 🪶

05/11/2026

Early Bird registration starts now!

https://runsignup.com/Race/NJ/Middletown/LoveforLuca5KRun

04/10/2026

💛Thank you to everyone who helped us raise over $50,000 dollars in Luca’s name last year. Thank you to Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer for helping us funnel the funds to these incredible grants in Luca’s name to fight rhabdomyosarcoma.

💛Details about our 5th and final Love for Luca 2026 5k coming soon!

This is one of our favorite posts each year! ❤️ IT'S RESEARCH GRANT ANNOUNCEMENT TIME! ❤️

As you know, our small-but-mighty all-volunteer team raises money year-round for 2 purposes: 1) providing support to families, and 2) funding new research. And it's time to fund some research! 💪

🤔 HOW DO WE PICK WHERE THE MONEY GOES? Every spring, we use donations we collected the previous calendar year to award research grants to promising pediatric cancer research projects. Hopeful researchers submit their proposals for consideration via our partner the Rally Foundation's ProposalCentral portal. Rally's expert Medical Advisory Board, comprised of the top pediatric oncologists in North America, then spends 3 months scrutinizing and scoring each one. The proposals that score the highest and signal the most promise are the ones we fund, thanks to YOUR generous donations.

Below are details on the incredible $150,000 in new pediatric research that YOU, our Infinite Love supporters, made possible! 🙌

But first we want to celebrate where $52,705.91 of those dollars came from -- for the 4th year in a row, the friends and family of Middletown's own Luca Iacono came together to hold the to honor Luca's legacy by funding MORE new research to help children with his cancer type, rhabdomyosarcoma. 💕 Lauren Moore and Samantha Coch Cutler led the charge in cooperation with Luca's parents, Michele and Frank Iacono to once again raise over $50,000 for research in Luca's honor, funding TWO entire research grants all on their own. Their efforts over the past 4 years to honor sweet Luca have been nothing short of remarkable, and we are so in awe of their display of infinite love for Luca. ❤️

Also, before we share the winning grant proposals, a bit of an honest plea/reminder -- we are just the middlewomen/men that connect your money to this lifesaving research. WE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR DONATIONS, so THANK YOU for every dollar you have given, and please consider donating again or setting up an automatic recurring donation each month or quarter, so we can keep this research train chugging along for 2026 and beyond! ✌️💕👉 Givebutter.com/InfiniteLove

And finally... 🥁 🥁🥁 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEW GRANT WINNERS! We trust you to use these funds to continually push childhood cancer research FORWARD for our kids! 🙌

❤️ Geoffrey Cheng, University of California San Francisco
🔬 "Biology of Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage in Stem Cell Transplant Recipients"
📝 Cancer types: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Neuroblastoma, Wilms Tumor
💰 FUNDED BY INFINITE LOVE MONTHLY GIVERS AND OTHER DONATIONS

❤️ Yiouli Panaylota Ktena, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
🔬 "Pharmacologic CCR9 Inhibition to Mitigate Graft-vs-Host Disease"
📝 Cancer types: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Acute Myeloid Leukemia
💰 FUNDED BY INFINITE LOVE MONTHLY GIVERS AND OTHER DONATIONS

❤️ Nathaniel Mabe, Purdue University
🔬 "Targeting the TRIM28-SETDB1 axis to enhance anti-GD2 Therapy in EWS"
📝 Cancer type: Ewing Sarcoma
💰 FUNDED BY INFINITE LOVE MONTHLY GIVERS AND OTHER DONATIONS

❤️ Nada Aboelella, The University of Chicago
🔬 "BCL-2 Drugging to Enhance anti-GD2-CAR T cell Therapy Against Neuroblastoma"
📝 Cancer type: Neuroblastoma
💰 FUNDED BY INFINITE LOVE MONTHLY GIVERS AND OTHER DONATIONS

❤️ Jocelyn Cruz Cruz, University of Colorado, Denver
🔬 "Enhancing CAR-T Cell Efficacy with Cabozantinib in Rhabdomyosarcoma"
📝 Cancer type: Rhabdomyosarcoma
💰 FUNDED BY LOVE FOR LUCA

❤️ Ara Jo, Duke University School of Medicine
🔬 "Mechanistic and Therapeutic Study of lncRNA KCNQ1OT1-P3F Axis in FP-RMS"
📝 Cancer type: Rhabdomyosarcoma
💰 FUNDED BY LOVE FOR LUCA

THANK YOU to our amazing supporters who are the reason the "science for tomorrow" part of our mission can happen! *YOU* ARE INFINITE LOVE! ❤️

11/17/2025

On the day of Luca's anniversary, we hope you see some beautiful signs of him today. We hope it inspires you to live your life as he did—with grit, grace, laughter, and strength. We miss you, Luca, and are thankful for the inspiration you continue to provide. 💙💙💙💙

10/30/2025

💙💙Happy birthday, Luca! He would’ve been 17 today. We miss him everyday and continue to be inspired by the impact he has had on our community!

💙💙If you can, please comment a memory of Luca or how he has affected your life to share with Frank and Michele as we celebrate his beautiful life today!

10/01/2025

Deputy Mayor Rick Hibell, Committeeman Ryan Clarke, and Committeeman Kevin Settembrino recently joined hundreds of community members to participate in the fourth annual Love For Luca 5K Run/Walk! Deputy Mayor Hibell was honored to welcome all the participants before the race kicked off at Middletown High School North. 🏃

The event was held in memory of Luca Iacono, a beloved 11-year-old resident who passed away from cancer in 2019. All proceeds will be donated to local nonprofit Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer to fund two $25,000 pediatric oncology research grants in Luca's name. This year's grand total was $52,705.91! 👏

The Township Committee was proud to support Luca's parents (pictured) and this important cause. 💛

09/30/2025

Thank you to everyone who walked, ran, donated, served as a company sponsor, and volunteered for our 2025 event. All of the money raised will go to Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer to fund two $25,000 pediatric oncology research grants in Luca's name!

Thank you for helping us keep Luca's beautiful spirit alive and for being a part of our community!

09/28/2025

It takes a village, and this is ours. We are beyond lucky to have the best volunteers around!

Starting at the top with Irene Foret, our incredible Director of Volunteers, who keeps everything running smoothly, and extending to the countless others who make the day possible—those at registration, t-shirt distribution, merchandise and raffle sales, refreshments, kids’ activities, course marshals, water stations, and all the floaters who jump in wherever needed.

We couldn’t do it without each and every one of you. 💙

We’ve got one more day til we announce our grand total raised. Still time to donate.
https://runsignup.com/Race/NJ/Middletown/LoveforLuca5KRun

09/26/2025

💙Thank you to Middletown Township for providing us with the resources to run the event this past Sunday.

💙Thank you to Deputy Mayor Rick Hibell for delivering an inspiring speech at the beginning of the race to highlight Luca and our generous community. Thank you to Committeemen Kevin Settembrino and Ryan Clarke for their presence and support of the event.

💙Thank you to Middletown Board Of Education, Middletown Township Police Department (especially Lieutenant Ciccone), Middletown Auxiliary Police Department, Middletown Fire Police, and Township of Middletown EMS (including Chief Craig Schwarz) for providing the necessary logistics to keep our runners and walkers safe!