- December 4, 2025
Flagler Palm Coast Entrepreneurship Program of Innovation teacher Alex Giorgianni with entrepreneurship students Leya Affotey, Olivia Diguglielmo and Macy Davis helping classmate Zoee Foster (center) with her social media campaign to raise awareness for childhood cancer. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Zoee Foster (center) with her twin sister, Chloe, and Chloe's boyfriend Cody Strawser. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Zoee Foster holds up a sign for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month with other FPC students in the school's courtyard on Sept. 5. Courtesy photo
FPC junior Zoee Foster was diagnosed with leukemia early in her freshman year after she began suffering severe headaches. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Makayla O'Neal, Zoee Foster and Melanie Restauro at Flagler Palm Coast High School's front entrance. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Zoee Foster, holding sign, with classmates to raise awareness for childhood cancer. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Zoee Foster with Olivia Ramirez, Stephanie Burge and Cecilia Harris. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Zoee Foster holds up her poster before school on Sept. 12. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Zoee Foster smiles for the camera and her Childhood Cancer Awareness campaign. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Zoee Foster stood in front Flagler Palm Coast High School’s main entrance as students were arriving on Friday morning, Sept. 12. She wore a T-shirt printed with the words, “Zoee Strong” and a picture of two boxing gloves attached to a gold ribbon.
She held up a poster that read, “Strength is a child fighting cancer with a smile on their face”
Zoee had a broad smile on her face. Two years ago, after experiencing severe headaches, she was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She began chemotherapy the next day, on Sept. 1, 2023. At the time she was beginning her freshman year at FPC. She was an honors student and a softball player.
During her two-year battle with cancer, Zoee suffered septic shock because of her weakened immune system caused by the chemo. She almost lost her life, her mother, Traci Foster, said. The infection went to her brain causing abscesses and hydrocephalus. A shunt was implanted to drain excess fluid from her brain’s ventricles.
“She was in the hospital for almost 100 days. She has had to relearn to walk, talk and write,” her mother wrote in an email to Zoee’s teachers.
Zoee returned to school last month for the beginning of her junior year. Her cancer is in remission. She is still undergoing chemo but her final treatment is just two months away on Dec. 14. In January, she will ring the bell at Nemours Children’s Health in Jacksonville to celebrate her end of treatment.
Friends, fellow entrepreneurship program classmates and, of course, her twin sister Chloe, posed with Zoee for photos as she held up her sign. She is displaying a different poster each Friday this month.
This is Zoee’s entrepreneurship project. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and Zoee is bringing awareness through her social media campaign.
On Sept. 5, she held up a poster in the FPC courtyard and students took pictures with her, which Zoee, entrepreneurship instructor Alex Giorgianni and other students in the class posted.
“We had 7 or 8,000 views on Instagram (fpc_deca) and hundreds and hundreds of views on our Facebook page (Flagler Palm Coast HS Bulldog Entrepreneurship Program of Innovation),” Giorgianni said.
Giorgianni has been Zoee’s hospital homebound teacher from the beginning. He said they have been talking about this project for two years. Now, she is finally healthy enough to do it.
She wants the awareness to be out there. We weren’t aware until Zoee was diagnosed. She’s trying to be a big advocate for other families.
— TRACI FOSTER
Zoee got Giorgianni in contact with pediatric oncology nurse, Erin Tracy, the founder of Fourth and Gold, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerate childhood cancer research by funding innovative and less toxic treatments with the goal of a more humane cure for childhood cancer. Gold is the ribbon color for childhood cancer.
Erin Tracy was one of Zoee’s nurses at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville.
“Erin was one of the first nurses (Zoee) had and she looks up to her so much,” Zoee’s mother said.
Fourth and Gold’s Tracy asked Giorgianni if the school’s football team would be willing to participate in the campaign.
“Football generates so much attention in the community,” Girogianni said. “And Coach (Patrick Turner) and the team and the cheerleaders all agreed to help us.”
At FPC’s Sept. 26 home varsity football game, the players will wear a Childhood Cancer Awareness decal on their helmets, and the cheerleaders and athletic training aides will wear gold ribbons, Girogianni said.
Live Like Cameron, a local non-profit that helps families with children diagnosed with cancer, will also participate in the Sept. 26 game.
“They recognize all the warriors in Flagler County,” Live Like Cameron President Melissa Fulling said. “The ones that can make it walk onto the field (before the game at 6:15 p.m.) and say a few things about childhood cancer awareness.”
Traci Foster said Fulling’s organization is amazing.
“Live Like Cameron has done a lot for us, education-wise and helping us financially,” Foster said. “They bought Christmas presents for Zoee and her twin sister. Live Like Cameron and Fourth and Gold are wonderful foundations. They’re both out there helping families in different ways. Live Like Cameron is helping right now, and Fourth and Gold is finding a cure, which is amazing.”
On Sunday, Sept. 21, days before the football game, Live Like Cameron will host the Flagler Warrior 5K Fun Run/Walk at Central Park at Town Center. Participants are asked to wear gold-colored apparel or dress as your their super hero. Registration is 8 a.m. with a 9 a.m. start. To register in advance, go to https://runsignup.com/Race/FL/PalmCoast/FlaglerWarriors5KFunRunWalk
“It’s not a competitive 5K. We’re trying to support the kids,” Fulling said. “We have a little ceremony, we call up the kids and present them with medals. The FPC band and Matanzas (High School) color guard will be there. The course is seven laps around the lake, so when you finish each lap you get a gold bead. We do everything in gold.”
Giorgianni said the hospital homebound program is his favorite part of his job even though it’s extra work and means he doesn’t get home until eight or nine o’clock on some nights.
“I get to help families go through something that's really terrible, and hopefully I can make their life at least a little bit easier,” he said.
He’s seen Zoee have “up-and-down moments” throughout her treatment.
“I wanted Zoee to take ownership of a project like this. It’s something we’ve talked about the last couple of years. We wanted to do something to make an impact,” he said.
Zoe was asked what advice she’d give to another child going through cancer treatment. She thought about it for a few seconds. And then, with a smile, she said, “Stay positive. Always be up. Don’t be negative.”
