Old Bridge students again collecting letters to Santa for charity
Anthony "AJ" Silvestri always has one goal during the holiday season — to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation through the annual Macy’s Believe Campaign.
Silvestri, who has cystic fibrosis, was granted his wish in 2012 by Make-A-Wish New Jersey, which creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Since then, Silvestri, an Old Bridge High School senior, has worked hard to ensure other children with life-threatening diseases can also have their wishes granted. A few years later, he joined forces with fellow township student Jillian Bresocnik, a current sixth grader at Jonas Salk Middle School, and her family.
The two continue to work together in this year's campaign and honor Jillian's sister, Kendall. In 2020, 7-year-old Kendall, who loved rainbows and unicorns, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer and passed away a few months later on May 16, 2020. According to Silvestri, the campaign will continue to honor Kendall’s legacy, encouraging everyone to "Believe in Unicorns."
With the help of supporters from Old Bridge schools, other communities and countries, the 17-year-old began his quest to collect more than 1 million cards for the campaign seven years ago. To date, Silvestri has collected more than 500,000 letters in support of the Believe Campaign.
This year marks the 14th annual campaign between Macy’s and Make-A-Wish. "Believers" of all ages can mail letters to Santa at the big red letterbox at any local Macy’s store or online. For every letter received from Nov. 26 to Dec. 24, Macy’s will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million, to help grant the wishes of children with critical illnesses. This year, during Believe week — Nov. 28 through Dec. 4 — Macy’s will donate $2 for each letter that they receive —written or digital. The money raised will be used to grant wishes.
In celebration of National Believe Week and to help Macy’s reach its extra $1 million goal, on Dec. 3, Silvestri and Jillian made a special delivery, bringing 136,512 letters to Macy’s Brunswick Square in East Brunswick.
Silvestri and Jillian arrived at Macy's on one of three Old Bridge fire trucks, followed by a caravan of boxes of holiday letters. Jillian and her family placed a photo of Kendall in the holiday sleigh full of letters before they all paraded into Macy’s and delivered the letters to the Believe Mailbox. Each letter will result in a $2 donation per letter from Macy’s to Make-A-Wish up to an additional $1 million nationwide.
READ: Old Bridge teen collects over 211K holiday letters for Make-A-Wish
Diagnosed at 10 days old, Silvestri suffers from cystic fibrosis, a chronic and progressive genetic disease that impacts his entire body. For Silvestri, cystic fibrosis specifically affects his lungs and gastrointestinal system, according to his mother Kerryann S. Silvestri. When Silvestri is well, he takes 16 medications per day and receives supplemental nutrition through a feeding tube. He has had 17 surgeries throughout his life and frequently received intravenous antibiotics through a port-a-catheter.
In 2012, amid the recovery from superstorm Sandy, Silvestri and his parents went to Las
Vegas to have his wish come true — a meeting with the cast of the History Channel
show "Pawn Stars." He also watched the filming of a segment with celebrity personality Chum Lee and met the cast of "American Restoration."
When Silvestri began his mission to support the Make-a-Wish foundation through
the Macy’s Believe Campaign, he was supported by the district, which included the Bresocnik family from Southwood Elementary School. Along with their parents, Kerri and Erik Bresocnik, Jillian and Kendall worked to support Silvestri and his mission by collecting thousands of letters from throughout the region and with the support of their parent’s school districts, including Sayreville and Carteret.
During her brief but fierce cancer battle, Kendall also was granted a wish from Make-A-Wish – a swimming pool for her backyard. Even though she fought her battle months before Christmas, Kendall continued to write "Wish" letters until she was physically unable to do so.
Both families will be collecting letters and also are encouraging everyone to submit digital letters through nj.wish.org/BelieveBresocnikSilvestri.
Any questions about the campaign or requests for “Believe in Unicorn” templates
can be directed to officialunicornbelievers@gmail.com.
Email: cmakin@gannettnj.com
Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Old Bridge NJ students again collecting letters to Santa for charity
