Marlboro officer to lead

Scouts on Australia trip
Girls will baby-sit
while parents of sick
children meet doctors
By anna kreyman
Staff Writer

Bernadette Lallo, a Marlboro police officer and a Girl Scout Gold Award recipient, will help lead a troop of Girl Scouts to Australia in order to give a helping hand to the parents of children who have been diagnosed with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS).

The Girl Scouts have been involved in helping, sharing and educating others on CdLS since the 1970s when the child of one of the organization’s leaders was diagnosed with it. The program started with parents getting together to cope with this sickness.

According to the Internet Web site cdls.org, CdLS is a congenital syndrome, meaning it is present from birth. A child need not demonstrate each and every sign or symptom for the diagnosis to be made. Common characteristics include low birth weight (often under 5 pounds), slow growth and small stature and small head size. Typical facial features include thin eyebrows, which frequently meet at midline, long eyelashes, a short upturned and thin nose, and downturned lips. Other frequent findings include excessive body hair, small hands and feet, partial joining of the second and third toes, incurved fifth fingers, gastroesophageal reflux, seizures, heart defects, cleft palate, bowel abnormalities, feeding difficulties and developmental delay.

Lallo, 24, described her personal feelings on helping others battle this deadly disease.

"I love doing this but it has drawbacks because it is very sad to watch these children and some adults suffering with this illness," she said. "Some kids have to wear helmets because 98 percent become self-destructive and bang their heads against the wall. It’s hard for them because many of them cannot speak and need to use sign language to communicate to others."

Lallo said she had to learn sign language in order to converse with those afflicted with the disease. She pointed out that when this program began it was only within the United States and it only re­cently became international.

"We do this on a volunteer basis, which means that we must pay for these trips from our own pockets," she said. "It took us two years to save money to go on this year’s trip to Sydney, Australia, and every year we try to save money to go to another place."

Lallo is the assistant leader of Troop 905/959 in the Bergen County community of Bogota. Lallo, who grew up in Bergen County, said she has been associated with the Girl Scouts for 18 years. There will be 28 girls age 13 and over taking this year’s trip between June 26 and July 10.

"In order to de-stress ourselves we are going to go to New Zealand after Sydney for about a week," said Lallo. "We are going to New Zealand in order to relax a little after being in such a sad environment for four days."

Those four days in Australia will begin with an introduction dinner and then par­ents of children with the disease will have the opportunity to go into conference with doctors specializing in the disease. While the parents are listening, learning and speaking to the doctors, Lallo and the Girl Scouts will be baby-sitting the children.

"Some of the children are infants and because they have this disease they are ex­tremely tiny," said Lallo. "The infants are so small that they can fit into the palm of your hand. We need to feed them and take care of them while their parents are speak­ing to the doctors."

Lallo said she likes to work with people.

"I am a Marlboro police officer and I love it," she said. "I am the type of person that cannot be bored, but instead I constantly need to be doing interesting things."

Lallo graduated from the Monmouth County Police Academy, Freehold Township, in December. She had worked as a police dispatcher for about two years before that.

Lallo has been a resident of Marlboro for nine years and is a graduate of Marlboro High School. She lives with her parents, Doreen and Gary, and her sister, Nicole. She is engaged to be married to Monmouth County Sheriff’s Officer Roger Peter in October.

For more information on Cornelia de Lange Syndrome go to www.cdlsusa.org.