PHOTO RELEASE: Gottheimer Attends Unveiling of “Joan’s Joy Legacy Lane” in Honor of Joan D’Alessandro

Above: Gottheimer Helps Unveil “Joan’s Joy Legacy Lane”

HILLSDALE, NJ — Yesterday, Monday, September 7, 2026, Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) joined Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17), Mayor Michael Sheinfield, the Hillsdale community, Rosemarie D’Alessandro, and the D’Alessandro family to unveil “Joan’s Joy Legacy Lane,” a new street sign honoring the memory of Joan D’Alessandro and her mother’s decades-long fight for stronger child protection laws.

“Joan’s joy is still here. It’s on this street sign. It’s in the law that bears her name. And it’s in every child who is a little safer because you refused to let her story end in silence,” said Congressman Gottheimer (NJ-5).

Joan D’Alessandro was a seven-year-old Girl Scout who was murdered on April 19, 1973, while delivering cookies to a neighbor’s house in Hillsdale. Her mother, Rosemarie D’Alessandro, turned her grief into advocacy, championing the passage of “Joan’s Law” in New Jersey in 1997 under Governor Christie Whitman, and its federal counterpart, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1998, ensuring that anyone who murders and sexually assaults a child under fourteen is never eligible for parole.  The legislation has been updated in New Jersey to apply to any child under eighteen. 

Gottheimer is a cosponsor of the Paula Bohovesky and Joan D’Alessandro Act, to raise the age for prohibition on parole to cover all minors eighteen and under who were murdered and sexually assaulted.

Below: Gottheimer Helps Unveil “Joan’s Joy Legacy Lane”

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