Santas Fill Toms River Neighborhood To Honor Beloved Girl's Memory

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“Within minutes, people were commenting ‘ordered,’ ” Cirillo said. That was Nov. 17.

As of Tuesday evening, there were nearly 50 homes in the neighborhood displaying the 12-foot Santa, including most of the homes on Sheila Drive where the Cirillos live.

“It makes me happy and sad,” she said, happy to see them lining the roads to honor Leigha’s memory, but sad because they are a reminder that she is gone.

It’s not just a tribute to Leigha, but a testament to the community and how it has enveloped the Cirillos with love and support.

‘An amazing community’

Leigha was born Sept. 1, 2009, and it was not long after she was born that she was diagnosed with an extremely rare chromosomal disorder, 3p deletion short arm, where a portion of a chromosome is missing.

Only 42 children in the world have the disorder, which causes developmental delays and physical disabilities. Erica and Joe Cirillo were told Leigha wouldn’t live past the age of 2, but Erica made it her mission to give Leigha the best life she could.

Over the years, that meant advocating to improve accessibility for those using wheelchairs in a number of arenas. Erica advocated for years to improve bathrooms at Silver Bay Elementary School in the Toms River, because of struggles to accommodate Leigha’s wheelchair. She was involved with Beaches for All, an organization started by a friend who was inspired by Leigha and by Erica’s efforts to give her a way to enjoy the beach with her siblings.

There’s Fountains of Hope, an organization Erica helped lead that has advocated for a splash pad at a Toms River park that will accommodate children with disabilities.

And there is the LeighaStrong community, where people could follow Leigha’s story. Erica said efforts are in the works to transform it into the Leigha Strong Project, with its mission to support families faced with the challenges that go with a child having a rare disease and pay forward the help they received.

All of those efforts helped Leigha and the family become well-known in Toms River at large. That’s particularly true in the Twin Oaks neighborhood and on Sheila Drive, where Leigha met the neighbors on regular walks courtesy of Wende Goodall, the Toms River Regional Schools teacher assigned to Leigha’s homebound instruction, which had been in place since the coronavirus pandemic.

“Wende would take Leigha around the neighborhood and they would stop to talk to everyone,” Erica said.

It’s created a community for the family, including Leigha’s siblings — twin brother Joey and older sister Kristianna — that drew them back to Toms River after a brief move to Lacey Township. It’s a community that has embraced them, especially over the last couple of years when Leigha spent long stretches in the hospital.

When Leigha was placed on hospice in late summer, the community enveloped the family with kindnesses, Erica said, from meals delivered to the house to help getting Kristianna and Joey to places they needed to go. Joe’s employer was supportive, allowing him to be with Leigha as much as possible.

“It’s an amazing community,” Cirillo said.

A love of Christmas

Because Leigha loved Christmas so much, the family decided to celebrate one last Christmas with her in September and asked the neighborhood to join in.

“The whole community does festivals,” she said of the neighborhood, complete with the street being blocked off, so it wasn’t unusual for them to come together. On Sept. 25, two days before Leigha’s death, the neighborhood came out in force.

Restaurants including Breakin’ Bread, Bubbakoos, Slice, and Pies On 9 provided food. A group of girls made bracelets with letter beads saying “Leigha Strong” and passed them out. Friendly’s provided ice cream. There were holiday decorations and so much more, Erica said.

The celebration included a visit with Santa Claus. Not just any Santa, mind you, but one the Cirillos had known for some time. He’s known as the Barnegat Santa, but when he is not dressed in his red-and-white suit as Saint Nick, he goes by another name, William Neyenhouse.

The family met him at Argos Farm in Lacey, during one Christmas season when the farm offered photos with Santa Claus as part of its holiday events. Neyenhouse was the Santa.

“Joey and Kristianna went up to him because Leigha was sleeping, and he asked them, ‘What do you want for Christmas?’ ” Erica said. Joey replied, “For my twin sister to walk and talk.”

Neyenhouse asked the children if he could say hello to Leigha, and walked over to where she was in her wheelchair.

“Leigha was sleeping,” Erica said, “and he came over and started singing to her. Ever since then he’s been by Leigha’s side.”

Neyenhouse’s visit to the Christmas in September celebration wasn’t the first time he went out of his way to be with Leigha, however. In November 2018, Leigha was hospitalized at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and very seriously ill, Erica said. Someone got word to Neyenhouse on Thanksgiving, and he donned his Santa suit and drove out to CHOP to be with her.

“He took time away from his own family to be with her,” Erica said.

It’s one of many kindnesses that have been shown to the family over and over, from the support of multiple restaurants to Leigha Strong T-shirts donated by Dominic Farro of Farro’s Tees to many others who went out of their way to help with the funeral after Leigha’s death on Sept. 27. First Presbyterian Church in Toms River accommodated the 700 people who showed up to support the family, and Carmona-Bolen Home for Funerals, which handled arrangements, to Dream Horse Carriage Company of Jackson, which provided a horse-drawn hearse. She also praised the Toms River Regional Schools and Superintendent Michael Citta, for their support for Kristianna and Joey and for the family as a whole.

Honoring Leigha and Santa

The approach of Christmas has made Leigha’s absence much more stark for the Cirillos.

“She should be sitting right there,” Erica said, pointing to a seat on the couch. Some of the Christmas decor was up, but instead of the usual reds and greens, silver and gold that many people use to decorate for the holidays, Erica said their decor would be purple this year, as it was Leigha’s favorite color.

And of course, there’s the front yard, with a sign that says “HOPE,” an inflatable elf, a snowman and the 12-foot Santa, the same Santa seen in neighbors’ yards, and on yards of nearby streets.

“I chose Santa in part because Leigha loved him, but also to pay tribute to (Neyenhouse),” Erica said.

She did have one secret she shared: Inflatables aren’t at the top of her list for Christmas decor.

“I hate them,” Erica said with a laugh. She attributes that to having had to help her parents put up their very large collection of Christmas inflatables — she estimated it was at least 50 — when she was a kid.

“They had one of those snow globe ones,” she said, then went on to describe how she had to crawl inside it to straighten it out when the interior piece wasn’t standing up correctly, laughing as she spoke.

Seeing the inflatable Santas rising along the street has been having the effect she wanted: Bringing joy to others. Erica said she saw a boy walking down the street with his mother, and pointing and smiling.

“This season is about giving,” she said. “His smile means everything.”

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