Taunton Shows Up by the Carload for Two-Year-Old Battling Cancer
Phillip Gaspar loves cars, his home city of Taunton, and giving back to the community.
At the beginning of the pandemic, he started a group called “Cars for Kids,” where he and his car-loving friends would host a parade of cars for children celebrating a birthday, so they didn’t have to celebrate alone. The community took part by keeping an eye out for Gaspar’s announcements on Facebook.
“Whoever was feeling selfless that day would come,” he explained. At one point, Gaspar was conducting six birthday parades in a day. Due to a busy schedule, he was forced to retire his group – until he heard about a two-year-old boy battling brain cancer that could use some company on his birthday.
TAUNTON All walks of life were participating in this for Finn, and that s what s super cool, said Sharon Barbosa of her 2-year-old son Finn Paradis s Sunday car parade.
Finn has anaplastic ependymoma a rare and aggressive brain cancer, and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. So Barbosa decided she wanted to do something special for his birthday, and thought of a car parade.
Phillip Gaspar and Orlando Cornier from the Cars For Kids Facebook group a group that has helped arrange car parades for children during the COVID-19 pandemic helped Barbosa arrange the event, and she said she was very grateful for their help.