For a decade, Rob Faugno watched his sister Bartolina go through hospital visits, new medications, bandages, wires and terrible side effects.

Right before she was to undergo surgery to remove a tumor on her brain stem five years ago, Bartolina was offered a “wish” through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. But when they asked her what she wanted, she said:

“I don’t understand, wishes are for sick kids … I’m not sick, so you should give my wish to someone who needs it.”

Rob, a junior marketing and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises dual major, was in the room at the time. Ever since that day, he has been inspired by her decision.

Now Rob is trying to help other children like his sister. On April 11, Bartolina’s 18th birthday, he will run 54 miles from the Pi Kappa Alpha house at Syracuse University to the Pi Kappa Alpha house at Cornell University.

He wants to raise money and awareness for Make-A-Wish Central New York, an organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. His goal is to raise $50,000.

Rob’s run is partly to celebrate Bartolina’s progress. This fall, she will attend Lesley University in Boston, a milestone doctors never thought she would reach.

“This is honoring how far she’s come and how amazing her journey has been,” Rob said.

When Rob first came up with the idea, his friends and family questioned his ability to run such a long distance. He had never run more than 10 miles at one time.

“The way I look at it is, nobody asks an 8-year-old kid if he can handle leukemia, but they do that. So I wanted to do something that was a little bit foreign to me to symbolize that — what these kids do,” Rob said.

Make-A-Wish Central New York enlisted the help of Fleet Feet, a Syracuse running store that helped Faugno outline his training and outfitted him with gear. He has been training for 16 weeks and had to change his diet to accommodate the extra exercise.

“The training is hard and it takes a toll on your body, but the way I look at it is I’m not running for me anymore,” Faugno said.

On average, a wish in Central New York costs $9,000. Rob already has close to $10,000. This is the largest individual goal Make-A-Wish Central New York has ever seen, said Diane Kuppermann, the organization’s president and CEO.

“It’s not every day that a young man or woman comes to you saying, ‘I wanna run 54 miles and raise over $50,000 for Make-A-Wish,’” Kupperman said. “So our first priority was to make sure Rob was safe in doing what he wanted to do.”

Granting wishes is something of a family business for the Faugnos. Rob’s uncle is Buddy Valastro of TLC’s “Cake Boss.” Rob’s mother and father both work at Carlo’s Bakery, which Valastro runs, and as a family, they help grant wishes for children with illnesses all over the country.

“It’s a couple days that they don’t have anything to worry about, that’s the goal,” said Rob’s father, Joe Faugno, about the kids in the Make-A-Wish program. “Granting the wish does so much for people who grant the wishes, and that’s how we feel as a family.”

The “Cake Boss” team grants more wishes in one year than the New York Jets, Giants, Yankees and Mets combined, Joe said.

Because of this, Rob has seen both sides of the process, which is why this event is so important to him. The family sees the end result of every wish, but knows there’s more work that goes into making it happen, he said.

For Rob, donating to Make-A-Wish allows children with illnesses to do something they never would have the opportunity to do.

“You never know what’s going to happen with these illnesses,” Rob said. “A lot of times they don’t get to do the things that normal kids do, so if you can grant them a wish and for one day they can forget about all their problems and just enjoy being a kid again, it’s really priceless.”

ekbaty@syr.edu

Published on March 26, 2014 at 2:00 am

Contact Emma: ekbaty@syr.edu