The Foundation’s namesake, Kelly Gibson, is very much a local girl, born and raised in Somerville, NJ. She was a graduate of Immaculata High School and Montclair State University. If you are asked to describe Kelly, it would be a passionate individual, with a magical way about her. A person who cared dearly for others.
Someone who waged an almost 4 and one-half year battle with the insidious disease Melanoma. Ironically, this is the same disease that had taken her grade school and high School classmate Jeff Spangler in 1997.
Kelly would not let the disease take her spirit or dampen her dreams. Even after the cancer took hold, she continued her life with all the hope and exuberance anyone could ask for. She sought out opportunities to volunteer for experimental treatments, knowing that it would most likely not help her, but that it would help her doctors and perhaps it would benefit someone in the future. She actively participated in educating people about the prevention and early detection of this insidious disease until she physically left us on March 4, 2005. Kelly was only 35 years old when malignant melanoma claimed her life.
Her grace, strength, courage and determination are an inspiration to all that knew her. This Foundation is our promise to her to never give up the battle that she so gallantly fought. Kelly’s life, as we knew it may have ended on March 4, 2005 but her dream lives on and only gets stronger through support of people like YOU.
