Handprint Ceremony at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital Honors Hyundai Hope on Wheels Grant Supporting Pediatric Cancer Patients

Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital is celebrating a generous grant from Hyundai Hope on Wheels® with a special Handprint Ceremony outside the Children’s Hospital on Thursday, September 10 at 3 p.m. during Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. The ceremony consists of brief remarks before young patients and their families dip their hands in paint and leave handprints on a Hyundai vehicle, symbolizing their fight against cancer.

The grant is worth $100,000 and helps provide the staffing costs for a Nurse Navigator to support the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) program at the Children’s Hospital’s Children’s Cancer Institute. The AYA program, which was first launched in 2024 with help from Hyundai Hope on Wheels, treats patients between the ages of 15 and 39 who have received a cancer diagnosis, and is designed to address the survival gap present among patients in this age group. The role of the Nurse Navigator is to focus on the unique needs of AYA patients, families and clinicians by coordinating care and increasing levels of psychosocial support, fertility preservation and clinical trial enrollment.

For more than 25 years, Hyundai Hope On Wheels (HHOW) has been on a quest to end childhood cancer and has become one of the nation’s leading funders of pediatric cancer research. The organization fuels cutting-edge research, ignites public awareness and works together with leading partners nationwide to help create a cancer-free future for kids.

Likewise, donations made to Tackle Kids Cancer directly benefit the essential clinical care, unique support services and groundbreaking cancer research needed to find a cure at the Children’s Cancer Institute at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital.

Members of the media are invited to attend the ceremony and Handprint Ceremony. We are happy to offer onsite interviews with Hyundai Hope on Wheels and Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital clinicians.

Event Time: Thursday, September 10 at 3 p.m.
Media Call Time: 2:45 p.m.
Where: Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center (entrance on Atlantic Street between Prospect Ave and 2nd Street)

For security purposes and planning, members of the media interested in covering this event must contact April Dunic, executive director of Communications at Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation, in advance to confirm attendance at 848-444-2443 or april.dunic@hmhn.org. Parking information to be provided upon confirmation of attendance.