HILLSDALE, N.J. — Before Florence Street became a gathering place for a child-safety movement, it was where Joan D’Alessandro rode her bicycle, played with other children, and came home with her knee socks slipping toward her ankles.
At 45 Florence, she practiced ballet movements at the railing. Behind the house, she celebrated birthdays. It’s a home well used to parties.
On Sept. 7, Joan’s birthday, a crowd packed the area outside the family home as Hillsdale unveiled “Joan’s Joy Legacy Lane” at Florence Street and Clinton Avenue. The blue sign, with white lettering and a white butterfly beside Joan’s name, honors the foundation her mother, Rosemarie, built in her memory in 1998. Its work has included educational and recreational excursions for neglected and abused children and consultation for victims of crime.
There were two congressmen, a state senator, borough officials, friends and supporters. There were photographs and a rendition of “Happy Birthday.” And there was Rosemarie, in her element, in a butterfly-patterned dress, bringing those gathered back to the little girl whose life continues to shape the work she describes as a movement.
“She was a spirited child,” she said.
Joan was 7 when she was sexually assaulted and murdered on April 19, 1973, while delivering Girl Scout cookies to a neighbor. Her body was found three days later, on Easter Sunday, April 22, in New York’s Harriman State Park. Rosemarie turned her grief into advocacy, championing the passage of Joan’s Law in New Jersey in 1997 under Gov. Christie Whitman and its federal counterpart, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1998. The laws barred parole for offenders who sexually assault and murder children under 14. An expansion signed in New Jersey in 2017 extended the life-without-parole provision to the murder of a victim under 18 committed in conjunction with a sexual offense.
The dedication gave that work a permanent marker on the street where it began.
Mayor Michael Sheinfield, speaking before the ceremony, explained that the designation honors the foundation that grew from the tragedy. During his public remarks, he thanked Rosemarie and the foundation for their work protecting children and credited the borough’s Naming Committee with developing the recognition.
Sheinfield thanked Police Lt. Matthew Buesser; Environmental Commission member Rick Savino; Recreation Committee member Edward Grill; local historian Peter Hard; and councilmen John Ruocco and Anthony DeRosa. He singled out DeRosa for helping develop the outline and policies behind the borough’s honorary naming process.
The dedication followed the Borough Council’s unanimous July 14 vote to move forward with the honorary naming. The Naming Committee recommended recognizing the entire D’Alessandro family’s decades of advocacy and service, including work by Rosemarie and her sons John and Michael. Initially discussed as “D’Alessandro Way,” the recognition took its final form as “Joan’s Joy Legacy Lane.”
For DeRosa, the occasion reached back to his own childhood in Hillsdale. He remembered emergency responders and volunteers going door to door searching for Joan.
“It just made such an impression on me at that young age,” he said.
Decades later, he said, Rosemarie had turned the tragedy into something that helped other children and families.
“She’s an amazing person,” DeRosa said.
Rosemarie’s son John introduced the speakers and described the unveiling as an honor for his mother’s work and the foundation she created. When her turn came, Rosemarie pointed to the house and offered the crowd a glimpse of Joan at 6, practicing ballet.
“Do you get an idea of her spirit?” she asked.
That spirit, she said, showed itself in the way Joan treated other children.
Rosemarie recalled hearing, decades after Joan’s death, from a woman who remembered being a child on the playground with no one to play with. Joan had brought her into the group and kept making sure she belonged.
The woman told Rosemarie that Joan’s kindness had changed her life.
Her recollections also gave Rosemarie something new to know about her daughter: The girls had read about flowers together, and Joan — it turned out, unbeknownst to Rosemarie — loved morning glories.
There were other memories, too: Joan walking home from St. John’s with her brother and sister, her poncho turned sideways, her socks down, a big smile on her face.
These were the details Rosemarie wanted people to carry with them as they looked at the new sign.
From the same house, she explained, the family has carried on the foundation’s work. A room overlooking the driveway holds photographs of Joan and the organization’s mission. John works there at the computer. His brother Michael is a fixture at Joan’s Joy events. The property hosted 17 yard sales to raise money for child safety and victims’ rights.
The home has also been a place for writing: Rosemarie told the crowd she wrote both her books there. “The Message of Light Amid Letters of Darkness” recounts her life and child-safety activism, weaving letters into her account. Her latest, “The Message of Light: A Mother’s Unstoppable Quest for Justice and Change,” was released in April, adding another chapter to the work she has carried forward in Joan’s name.
The work also took Rosemarie into a system she believed needed to change.
She recalled the traumatic burden on victims’ families who had to return to parole proceedings and explain their loss again in hopes of keeping an offender imprisoned.
“You relive what happened,” she said.
Her response was to organize.
“I had no idea of how to do it,” she said. She began with grassroots work and common sense.
Joan’s killer died June 5, 2021, while serving a life sentence at South Woods State Prison in Cumberland County. Rosemarie’s work has continued, with a focus on protecting other children and supporting victims and their families.
At the dedication, Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y., 17th District) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J., 5th District) pledged to continue working together to expand the federal law.
Lawler recalled working with Rosemarie on Paula’s Law in New York, named for Paula Bohovesky, a 16-year-old killed in Pearl River in 1980 while walking home from her library job. The proposal would expand New York’s Joan’s Law, extending its prohibition on parole for offenders who sexually assault and murder children to cases involving victims under 18, rather than under 14.
Lawler said Rosemarie had crossed the state line to support both the legislation and Paula’s mother, Lois — carrying the fight inspired by Joan to another family and community.
Describing their collaboration across party lines and neighboring districts, Lawler called Gottheimer his best friend in Congress. He said the federal legislation had been introduced and was working through committee. Gottheimer is a cosponsor of the Paula Bohovesky and Joan D’Alessandro Act.
Gottheimer told Rosemarie that her work had brought people together around the responsibility to protect children.
“Thank you for your fight,” he said.
Rosemarie welcomed the sight of the two congressmen together, calling their cooperation on child safety something positive to remember.
With the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching, Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-N.J., 39th District) invoked her late uncle, former Westwood Mayor Skip Kelley, recalling his annual appeals for kindness. She offered that remembrance in Joan’s name and in tribute to Rosemarie and her family.
“This week, go out and do a random act of kindness for somebody,” she said. “A lot of people are struggling. A lot of people just need to know that somebody cares.”
As the morning grew warmer, Rosemarie moved from her seat just off the curb into the shade of a tree, her mission still animating her remarks. She spoke about making time for other people, including neighbors who might be well cared for but still lonely. Worry less about being judged, she urged, and act on the good you can do.
As the ceremony neared its close, she directed attention to a green ribbon on her large oak tree. Each April 19, she said, the ribbon goes up with a message: Remember Joan today so tomorrow’s children will be safe.
Soon came the unveiling, the birthday song and more photographs. It fell to DeRosa, when all was said and nearly done, to scale a ladder at the intersection and take the group photo of Rosemarie and her guests beneath the new sign. Guests were invited to the house for refreshments.
On the street where Joan once played, Rosemarie had explained what she hoped would keep growing.
“Yes, it starts with Joan. It starts with me,” she said. “But it doesn’t, it completely doesn’t end there.”
Safety Fest Sept. 26
Next for Rosemarie and the foundation is the 12th annual Joan’s Joy Child Safety Fest, Saturday, Sept. 26, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Joan Angela D’Alessandro White Butterfly Sculpture & Garden at the Hillsdale train station on Broadway.
The free event begins with participants holding hands to stand up for child safety, followed by a guest speaker, a 3 p.m. butterfly release and live entertainment. Children’s activities include face painting and balloon twisting; a tricky tray and 50/50 are also planned.
The rain date is Sept. 27. Details are at joansjoy.org.
