Symbol of luck and hope
Lexi Ioannou poses with her mother, Dina Manzo, while showing off one of the ladybugs in her mother's collection. (LESLIE BARBARO / HERALD NEWS)
Dina Manzo is a devotee of both ladybugs and the Virgin Mary. Interestingly, the colorful beetle and the Blessed Mother are linked in medieval folklore. That's how the belief started that ladybugs bring good luck and shouldn't be harmed.
On a personal level, Manzo explains that the shiny red-and-black beetles have appeared when good things were happening in her life. She hopes her new foundation will bring good fortune to children with cancer at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson.
Manzo cites these examples of her experience: a ladybug landed on her hand at the rehearsal for her 2005 wedding. A ladybug appeared on the windowsill of her first apartment in Little Falls, another on a window of her first home in Mahwah.
Manzo's Franklin Lakes home is loaded with ladybug replicas. She has a ladybug-shaped doorbell and one painted among the vines on a ceiling mural in the kitchen. She wears an enameled ladybug pendent, and ladybugs adorn her rings. Her cat is called Ladybug, and Ladybug is her 12-year-old daughter's nickname.
Not surprisingly, when Manzo, 35, decided to establish a foundation to help children, she had no trouble selecting a name: Project Ladybug. Although the foundation is less than a year old, it has already donated $20,000 to pediatric cancer patients.
What makes ladybugs such a symbol of good luck? For Manzo, it's the folklore belief that they prevented a major crop failure in the Middle Ages.
The story says that, when European crops were being devastated by insects, Catholic farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary and ladybugs came to the rescue. The ladybugs ate the plant-destroying insects, saving the harvest.
Medieval folklore says that farmers began calling the ladybugs "The Beetles of Our Lady." Eventually, the name became "Lady Beetles," then changed to ladybugs. The red wings are said to represent the Virgin's cloak; the black spots stand for her joys and sorrows.
Manzo finds it appropriate to use the image for her charitable endeavor because she wants to turn sorrow into joy for children with cancer.
She anticipates that, with the help of funding from Project Ladybug, some of the young patients will have their prayers answered and will "fly away home" with their cancer in remission. The money will go toward having parties and special events to brighten the lives of the youngsters.
Liz Regula, the director of development for St. Joseph's, says, "It isn't every day that someone decides to start something like this. It's pretty rare."
Regula says the hospital gets support from as many as 15 to 20 foundations that generally spread funding among several beneficiaries.
At this point, the pediatric cancer patients are the sole recipients of Project Ladybug funds.
Manzo and her board of directors were able to donate the $20,000 by having a "girls' night out" event at The Brownstone in Paterson, which is owned by Manzo's husband, Tommy, his two brothers and a sister. The fundraiser, held last May, was attended by 400 women.
A similar even, billed as Ladybug Bonanza, is planned for early June. Various items, such as tote bags and scrap books featuring ladybugs, will be for sale.
