Miss Rhode Island wants to give pediatric cancer sufferers a glimmer of hope

On May 12, Ali Hornung was crowned Miss Rhode Island. Energetic, talkative and conspicuously stunning, Hornung is exactly the kind of 24-year-old torchbearer the organization loves to celebrate. She founded a nonprofit organization, Glimmer of Hope, which provides custom dolls and special events for children with pediatric cancer.

Hornung is also Jewish. She proudly wears a Star of David on her Miss Rhode Island sash. This is rare in the world of pageants; to date, there has only been one Jewish Miss America: Bess Myerson, who was crowned in 1945.

The North Kingstown native recently spoke with Jewish Rhode Island about her family, her charity work and the road to Miss Rhode Island.

She grew up in an interfaith family

Hornung also grew up in the same childhood home as her mother. Her father’s family is Catholic, while her maternal great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland.

“I grew up hearing all about the Holocaust,” Hornung recalls. “[The stories] had a profound impact on me as a child. In school, I was usually one of a couple, if not the only, Jewish student.”

Her mother, a high school math teacher, regretted leaving Hebrew school after a short time and not having a Bat Mitzvah in her youth, so Hornung was encouraged to connect with her roots. Hornung became a Bat Mitzvah at Temple Sinai in Cranston, where she was a dedicated member. While she still celebrated Catholic holidays with her father’s family, Hornung went to Israel with her temple at age 11 – a profoundly moving experience – and watched her mother give presentations about Hanukkah to her class. She would later join a Jewish sorority, Sigma Delta Tau, and conduct philanthropic work with Jewish Women International, an organization that works to empower women and girls, where her mother and grandmother had both been members.

Entrepreneurialism and service have always been her lifeblood

From her earliest years, Hornung was a precocious saleswoman. “I’ve always been very business-oriented,” she says. “When I was a kid, I was always starting little businesses and lemonade stands.”

When Hornung was 6 years old, she asked to volunteer at a soup kitchen. She was deemed too young to participate, so Hornung organized a drive for canned food instead. This became a formative experience and anticipated much of her future charity work.

At the University of Rhode Island, she triple-majored in Global Business, German and Human Development and Family Science. “It benefited me greatly,” says Hornung of Human Development. “It was my favorite major. I’m such an empath and love to help people. I’m like everybody’s therapist.”

She studied abroad in Europe

In high school, Hornung decided to participate in a foreign exchange program in Germany, where she stayed with a host family and studied the German language. “I had always heard these horrific things about Germany,” says Hornung. “I wanted to know how Germany is now. I’m a talker, so it made me a listener. It opened me up to being empathetic toward other cultures.”

Hornung bonded with her host family and attracted friends, and she was impressed with how seriously Germans took the threat of antisemitism. In college, she would spend five months studying in Vienna, Austria, putting her language skills to use.

Her fundraising to combat leukemia started with an unlikely friendship

Hornung was 16 when she met a girl named Ella, who was 11 years old and diagnosed with childhood leukemia. To help out Ella’s family, Hornung crafted and sold special hair bows, using her mother’s sewing machine. She eventually raised $1,300.

Two years later, Hornung competed in a seven-week fundraising contest through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She put together a sizable fashion show, hosted at the Quonset Club in North Kingstown. Ella participated as one of the models, wearing a sparkling pink dress. Hornung won the contest, after raising $43,000, and the event cemented her friendship with Ella. They started to refer to each other as “Big Sis” and “Little Sis.”

Hornung was very active during COVID

On Aug. 24, 2019, 14-year-old Ella succumbed to leukemia, and Hornung was devastated. “Big Sis” was now a sophomore in college – at URI – and uncertain how to proceed after the loss of her young friend.

“I was really struggling,” she recalls. “I was not doing great in school. I was suffering from memory loss, and all the typical things that happen when you’re grieving.”

Then the pandemic hit, and Hornung felt a strong desire to help her community – by making protective wear. “I basically locked myself in my room for two days and sewed hundreds of face masks,” she says. “People started reaching out to me and said, ‘Hey, can I buy these?’ ” Hornung called the enterprise Miracle Masks, and she donated the money she made to childhood cancer nonprofits. She personally stitched together more than 3,000 masks. “That’s all I did during the pandemic,” she remembers with a laugh.

Glimmer of Hope started with Ella’s wish

Before her passing, Ella had written a letter to the American Girl company about her desire for a doll without hair, which might normalize the hair loss experienced during cancer treatment. When she later heard this posthumous anecdote from Ella’s family, Hornung felt renewed inspiration. She set up the Glimmer of Hope Foundation to give hairless dolls to children battling cancer. The first doll given was named Hope. The name also speaks to the perseverance of cancer fighters and survivors, and as a bonus, “hope” echoes Rhode Island’s state motto.

The Foundation is now four years old, and Hornung has overseen the delivery of 600 dolls to date. She also arranges photo shoots with children and their families, along with “Best Day Ever” travel packages. Hornung herself has dressed up as a fairy godmother for Disney princess-themed events. Most of these take place in Southern New England, but Hornung is open to a much wider area. When diagnoses take a turn for the worst, the organization also prepares bereavement boxes.

A medium foretold her Miss Rhode Island crown

At 17, Hornung competed in Miss Rhode Island Teen. She was a natural fit for this kind of pageant, and although she didn’t place during that first attempt, Hornung went on to compete for adult Miss Rhode Island with astonishing success: She was second runner-up in 2019, fourth in 2021, and third in 2022. (The event wasn’t held in 2020, due to COVID, and Hornung studied abroad in 2023). The pageants were also a practical pursuit: The Miss America organization is the largest provider of educational scholarships to young women in the United States.

“I’d been getting close [to winning Miss Rhode Island],” Hornung recalls. “I thought that it was possible. It was hard to envision myself winning. But you have to believe it’s possible.”

Still, the crown was not a foregone conclusion. By 2023 she started to wonder whether to continue with the competitions. In a surprising twist, Hornung turned to a medium – Cindy Machado, who has since become a close friend – and asked about her future. Machado predicted that Hornung should try one more time.

Winning was an emotional event, and photographs show Hornung tearing up with joy. Yet again, Hornung is most pleased with the victory’s effects on her charity work: As Glimmer of Hope has grown, the Miss Rhode Island crown has amplified her message.

“I wanted a pedestal for the work I was doing with pediatric cancer,” says Hornung. “Truthfully, it is astronomical how much [Miss Rhode Island] has helped with Glimmer of Hope. Winning was life-changing.”

Hornung will compete in the national Miss America competition on Jan. 5, 2025.

To learn more about Glimmer of Hope, visit glimmerofhopefoundation.org

ROBERT ISENBERG is a freelance writer and multimedia producer based in Cranston. His latest book, “Mile Markers: Essays on Cycling.”