By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Community emergency squad heroes saluted one of their young fans last Friday morning when Woods Road School held a special day for Brave Billy Biviano, a 4-year-old coping with an inoperable brain tumor diagnosed when he was 14 months old.
Fire trucks, an ambulance, police car and even a SWAT team vehicle pulled up to the school’s curb so that four-year-old Billy could sit in driver’s seats, ring bells and listen to his heartbeat through a stethoscope.
The school gave Billy, who attends the school, one of its prestigious “clapouts,” in which all 485 or so pre-K to grade 4 pupils sit lining the walls and applaud and cheer as the honored person slowly walks it around the rectangle of hallways.
All 90 staffers wore “Brave Billy” T-shirts, and the bulletin boards and hallways were covered with posters conveying messages of encouragement and love.
Billy loves heroes, especially Captain America and comrades. On Friday, teacher Brian Caudill donned mask and blue tights as America’s Superhero. His presence was augmented by uniformed crews from each of the Hillsborough fire companies, the police force, rescue squad and Somerset County SWAT team officers.
Students, staff and responders crowded into the cafetorium to view a video-and-music montage of Billy’s life. Organizer Sue DiCenzo said the day was organized to demonstrate that a superhero can be brave, strong and powerful — like Billy — and helps people who are hurting, like the students.
Billy, a pre-kindergarten student, undergoes an intense weekend round of oral chemotherapy from home every six weeks. On weekends he is given 14 doses of medicine every six hours, starting Friday evening, to combat a tumor wrapped behind optic nerves, where a sample cannot be safely taken for biopsy.
Teacher Margie Rothblatt presented Billy with gifts made by her relatives in Ohio — including a knitted blanket in the shape and red, white and blue of a shield for Billy. Twin brother Michael was given a blue Captain America knit skullcap, complete with eyeholes, that he did not take off. Joey received a knit cap, too, in Hillsborough red and gold.
Ms. Rothblatt also compiled a montage of Biviano family photos to music that had a box of tissues being passed around.
Second grader Khushi Desai, whose mom is an instructional assistant at the school, gave Billy a stuffed bear that he held tightly the entire morning, even as he made his way from police car, to fire truck, to ambulance afterwards. All of the students in the school had the chance to tour the vehicles.
At the assembly, co-organizer Jane Caliguari presented Kristy and Vincent Biviano with a gift from the school — a symbolic check for $5,500, including $1,200 raised by all of the emergency services groups, to help with family expenses.
Officer Patrick Murphy gave Hillsborough police department shirts and caps to Billy, Michael and older brother Joey, 11.
After the emotional moments, teachers from the stage led the kids and audience in a dance to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off.”
Vincent Biviano, Billy’s father, said Tuesday the family had been invited to the school for an assembly and “a nice surprise,” but were “completely blindside” by the number of emergency vehicles, the signs on the walls, and even the paper Captain America shields teachers had made and given to the students.
“There was a lot of love and hard work put into it, and a lot of coordination,” said Mr. Biviano. “There was a lot of effort and hard work that definitely did not go unnoticed by us.”
Ms. DiCenzo said she was “so touched by the generosity and love of the Woods Road School families and staff as well as the support of the Hillsborough Emergency Services. This day was about giving emotional and financial support to Brave Billy and his exceptional family. It was a huge success and today the Woods Road School community and Hillsborough Emergency Services made a difference in this family’s life.”
She also said the day showed other students “were heroes for helping somebody in need and that Billy is our hero for teaching us how to be brave.”
