Dresses, makeup, nail polish, glitter and hairspray filled CoCo Beauty Lounge in Elmwood Park at an event held earlier this fall.
The beauty salon hosted a princess party for little girls to raise money in honor of Stella Marzillo, a 4-year-old who is in remission from cancer. The event raised $2,000 for the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation, according to CoCo Beauty Lounge owner Linzi CoCo.
“A client told me once that in life, you should offer your time, talent and treasure to help somebody,” she said. “I thought it would be a great idea to host a princess party for Stella.”
CoCo and Stella Marzillo’s mother, Lisa Marzillo, attended Elmwood Park High School together. The two were Facebook friends due to their acquaintance during high school. Lisa Marzillo is a first-grade teacher at Elmwood Elementary School.
“When I saw that Stella had cancer, I reached out to Lisa,” CoCo said. “I thought, ‘What can I do for this little girl?’ “
For the princess party, CoCo’s staff did 30 little girls’ nails, makeup and hair. They were treated to tiaras, glitter hairspray, a sundae station, desserts and were able to put on a princess dress.
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Outside of the salon, hula hoops, bubbles and chalk were available for the girls to play with when they were done with their beauty treatment. CoCo said Mori Milk donated a sundae station and other companies donated princess dresses and pizza.
Lisa Marzillo said she knew something was wrong with Stella when she saw she had unusual bruises.
“She had a fever, so we took her to the pediatrician,” she said. “She said the bruising coloring didn’t look good, so they sent us to the ER and they checked her blood.”
Stella’s nurse practitioner Ashley Strubhar at Lurie Children’s Hospital said Stella was diagnosed in March 2016 with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
According to the website cancer.gov, it is “an aggressive type of leukemia in which too many B-cell lymphoblasts are found in the bone marrow and blood.” It added that it is the “most common type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.”
“Instead of producing the normal B cells, they are producing blast cells, which is cancer cells in the body that take the place of normal blood cells,” Strubhar said.
Stubhar said Stella needed to be treated as a high-risk patient, with eight to nine months of intensive chemotherapy. Stella is in remission, but she has to complete chemotherapy until July 2018. She has returned to preschool.
“She’s just the brightest little girl I’ve ever met and the cutest little thing,” Stubhar said. “She kicks cancer’s butt with a smile on her face.”
CoCo said she decided to donate money to the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation because it’s a local charity. Anthony Rizzo recently donated a waiting room at Lurie Children’s Hospital, which is where Stella has her treatments.
CoCo said Lisa Marzillo said she didn’t want to collect money for their family, but rather for childhood cancer as a whole. Lisa Marzillo said she was overwhelmed by the kindness of CoCo and those who attended the princess party.
“Lisa said she’s never seen Stella smile the way she smiled that day,” CoCo said. “Smiles like that will help them get through the really hard days.”
Maryann Pisano is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.