Joshua’s Birthday Bash raises money, hope for pediatric cancer research

When Macon’s Labrina Solomon attended the United Negro College Fund’s Masked Ball at the Marriott City Center in November, she met a woman who gave her one of those “Don’t I know you?” looks.

“You’re Joshua’s mom,’’ the lady said, smiling.

It warmed Solomon’s heart and lifted her spirits.

The foundation named in memory of her oldest son continues to foster awareness and make a difference. Finding purpose through the pain is what keeps the Solomon family going.

“We help others, and it makes us feel like we are still connected to Joshua,’’ Solomon said. “He continues to live on through the work we are doing.’’

Joshua was 5 years old when he died on Aug. 14, 2009, a year after he was diagnosed with a rare and inoperable brain tumor known as DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma).

Wednesday, Feb. 5, would be his 21st birthday.

Solomon and her husband, Trent, and 15-year-old son, Caleb, have marked those birthday milestones along the way. They acknowledged when Joshua would have turned 10, when he would have become a teenager and when he would have turned 16 and gotten his driver’s license.

Three years ago, he would have been 18 and getting ready to graduate from high school in the spring.

“Even when school started back in the fall we would talk about how we would be packing  and getting Joshua off to college,’’ she said.

  The Solomon family started a foundation, Joshua’s Wish, in 2011, and has hosted major fundraising events in February and September.

The 15th annual Joshua’s Wish Birthday Bash for a Cure will be on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m. in the Anderson Conference Center at 5171 Eisenhower Parkway.  

There will be dinner, dancing (with music by AJ the DJ), a silent auction, a live auction and, of course, a birthday cake. This year’s festivities will include a Roaring Twenties theme. WMAZ’s Ben and Lorra Jones have been the masters of ceremony every year since its inception.

With proceeds from the birthday bash, about $243,000 has been donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, where Joshua was a patient. 

The money also has helped fund additional research to find a cure for DIPG, and $80,000 has been awarded to undergraduate scholarships for students at approved research institutions. Another $40,000 has been given to support local families during the holiday season.

The birthday bash annually draws about 300-350 people. A Joshua’s Walk is held every September during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The benefit walk/run starts at Tattnall Square Park and has previously been held at Amerson Park and the Mercer Law School on Coleman Hill.

  Joshua was a preschool student at Progressive Christian Academy in Macon when he became ill on a family trip to Alabama on Labor Day weekend in 2008. 

An MRI revealed a tumor on his brain stem that affected the part of the brain that controls breathing and swallowing. About 300 children, ages 5-9, are diagnosed with DIPG in the U.S. each year.

Joshua became a popular patient with the staff at St. Jude and was featured in a commercial for the hospital. He also was among the children selected to ring the opening bell in a ceremony at the NASDAQ stock exchange with actress Marlo Thomas. Her father, the late entertainer Danny Thomas, founded St. Jude in 1962.

The Memphis hospital later named one of its holiday teddy bears in Joshua’s memory. In 2021, the  Solomons were chosen to represent Georgia for the hospital’s “United States of St. Jude” campaign.

 “Sometimes I wish we were just regular parents,’’ Solomon said. “But this is something we are passionate about. I work with other organizations and my church. This is where my heart is.’’