The Little North Pole Lights Up Saturday

By Katie McFadden

Get ready to be dazzled with the holiday spirit on Saturday, November 29, as The Little North Pole illuminates for the 30th year. And in addition to raising funds for research and advancements for juvenile diabetes, Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDFR), Joe Mure and Jodi Tucci hope to make Christmas a little brighter for a special little girl named Ali Rose.

After you’ve digested Thanksgiving dinner, head to The Little North Pole at 144-03 Neponsit Avenue at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, for the annual ceremony to light up the extraordinary holiday home that won ABC’s “Great Christmas Light Fight,” and has been recognized by Hallmark Channel’s, “Ready, Set, Glow.” For the last few weeks, Mure and his army of Santa’s helpers have been making sure every bulb is properly screwed in, checking them twice, to make sure the home is ready for Saturday. The event will include plenty of food available for a donation, and an unforgettable show with local talent from school and dance groups to professionals like Angelo Venuto and Noel. The show will be emceed by Joe Causi and Goumba Johnny, while DJ Mugsy will spin tunes in between performances.

And the biggest star of all will be Santa Claus, who will have a toy for every child in attendance, and this year, a book! “We’re very excited to give away books and promote reading,” Tucci, a teacher for 31 years, said. The books have been generously donated by the American Federation of Teachers in Albany.

Also new this year is a special guest featured in The Little North Pole’s garage scene that Tucci and Johnny Sluyk worked on, featuring skating rinks and Santa’s workshop, and a brand new Type 1 Diabetes Barbie doll, just released by Mattel, complete with her own insulin pump and a Continuous Glucose Monitor, something kids with T1D are all too familiar with, and a relatively new tool that makes life a little easier, thanks to funding that comes from The Little North Pole. “Mattel and Breakthrough T1D teamed up and came out with this Barbie doll who is living with Type 1 diabetes, and she has these devices that so many children are wearing these days, so we have her prominently displayed,” Mure said.

Ever since Mure started The Little North Pole 30 years ago, funds raised have primarily gone towards juvenile diabetes research, but occasionally, Mure comes across another child in need for different reasons, who he splits the proceeds with. This year, that child is Ali Rose Modica, a six-year-old little girl left unable to walk or talk, after suffering from a brain injury due to unexplainable life-threatening complications from the flu in January 2024. Since then, her parents have dedicated their lives to doing what they can to bring back the active, sassy girl they remember.

“Ali was a perfectly healthy girl at 4 years old,” her father, Joseph Modica said. “On January 6, 2024, we all had flu-like symptoms, including my 7-month and 2-year-old boys. Ali was the last one to get sick, and she had common cold symptoms, no fever, but she said she was tired, and she went to bed on January 5.” At 3 a.m., they checked in on their daughter and found her frozen with her lips turning blue and rushed her to the hospital.

At the hospital, Ali Rose’s breathing started to decline. “The last words she said to us were, ‘Mommy, Daddy, I have to go potty.’ Then they intubated her,” Modica said. “Her heart was failing, and they had to get her on ECMO. Jersey Shore Medical couldn’t perform it, so we had to go to CHOP in Philly and of course it was snowing, so no one was flying. We had to take the chance by ambulance. They told us if we don’t move now, she’s not going to make it. We got there with no hiccups, but just as we got to the ICU, she coded. They did chest compressions and got her on a ventilator and got a pulse after 18 minutes. Fast forward five days later, they were able to get her off ECMO, and she was on dialysis and a ventilator. She had rhabdomyolysis, a muscle breakdown that affected her kidneys. It essentially killed her kidneys, and she had liver failure, lung failure, but she eventually started breathing on her own and her kidneys came back 100 percent,” Modica said. But with coding for so long, the damage was done. Ali Rose had suffered a noxious brain injury, and the Modicas have faced a daily uphill battle of trying to get back the chatty, playful little girl they had for their last normal Christmas in 2023.

That mission has included physical therapy four days a week and massage therapy once a week, and the use of stem cells from cord blood they just happened to save from when Ali Rose was born. The stem cell therapy showed great improvement for Ali Rose as she’s been able to hold herself up more, track, laugh, smile and cry, but still unable to talk or walk, Ali Rose has a long way to go, while the Modica family faces financial hardship, needing to try further stem cell therapy, and continuous physical therapy, which is not being covered by insurance. Meanwhile, the family has been left with no answers as to how a flu could lead to their daughter being nonverbal and quadriplegic.

When Mure caught wind of the Modica’s story from their uncle, he immediately offered to donate some of this year’s proceeds towards helping Ali Rose. “We decided to try and help the family because they need some help,” Mure said.

The Modica family, including Ali Rose, will be at Saturday’s lighting. “It’s amazing,” Modica said. “It’s a miracle how people care, and Joe is fully invested in Ali’s story and has been trying to get the word out. We have a lot of family and friends traveling and Ali and her brothers, Joey and Carmine, will be coming. We have a light show at PNC, and we go there once a week. My kids love it, so we know they’re going to love this.”

So, come out on Saturday to join the Modicas in seeing The Little North Pole Light up for the season and consider donating to help make Christmas a little brighter for Ali Rose, and children living with T1D. After the home lights up on Saturday, it will remain lit for the season, with other special events on Monday, December 1 at 10:15 a.m. for a group of children with autism, at 6:15 p.m. for St. Camillus Special Olympics and on Wednesday, December 3 at 6:15 p.m. for foster children of the City of New York. For more info and to donate, head to LittleNorthPole.org and follow @thelittlenorthpole on Instagram. For more on Ali’s story, follow @alessandramodica729 on Instagram and Alessandra.rose5 on TikTok.