As the sun hovered low on the horizon Saturday, the quiet streets of Chevy Chase began to twinkle. Lawns lit up with lighted candy canes, glittering reindeer and inflatable snowmen, and thousands of holiday lights as the Westbrook and Brookdale neighborhoods celebrated Christmas in June for a girl with cancer who might not see another December.
Neighbors in elf ears, Christmas pajamas and Santa hats lined the sidewalks to watch 9-year-old Kasey Zachmann, who is battling brain cancer, and her family drive past more than 270 homes in Westbrook, Brookdale and nine other neighborhoods glowing with decorations set up just for her.
Saturday’s festivities started with a June 22 email from Kasey’s mother, Alyssa Zachmann, asking neighbors to put Christmas lights up so her daughter could experience her favorite holiday one last time.
“I know this week will be incredibly hot and not the best climate for putting up lights,” Zachmann wrote to her neighbors, acknowledging the extreme heat warnings in the region. “But we aren’t sure how much time we have, so we don’t want to wait for cooler temperatures.”
The neighborhoods have been incredibly supportive of the family in the four years since Kasey’s diagnosis, Zachmann told Bethesda Today, so she had expected a “decent amount of people” would put up a strand or two of lights.
The community’s outpouring surprised the family. Hundreds of residents signed up on a shared online spreadsheet, and by Saturday, more than 270 houses across 11 neighborhoods were glowing with holiday decorations or draped in banners that read “Christmas for Kasey!”
Residents also reached out to the Glen Echo Fire Department, asking if it could participate in Saturday’s event.
What began as a small idea quickly grew in just six days. Ten Montgomery County volunteer fire departments, along with career firefighters, police officers and antique fire engines from Rockville, Ocean City and Fauquier County, Virginia, joined the effort, according to Lt. Meghan Quinn, a volunteer firefighter paramedic with the Glen Echo department. In total, 25 fire vehicles rolled through the neighborhoods, many decked out in lights and bells, with speakers blaring Christmas jingles.
Around 8 p.m., Santa Claus arrived at Kasey’s house in Brookdale on the back of a decorated, antique fire engine. Kasey was prepared for his visit, but she didn’t know the Glen Echo fire department also had coordinated a surprise visit from Dr. Bear, the mascot of Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., where Kasey has been receiving her treatment.
Kasey was thrilled, her mom said. Wearing a pink dress strewn with nutcrackers in a delicate pattern, Kasey quickly hugged them both and invited them to sit on the porch.
“Some of the kids are a little lukewarm about Dr. Bear,” Quinn said told Bethesda Today. “They think that he means cancer, hospital things and treatment, but Kasey is a huge fan.”
As she opened gifts and cards from friends and family, Kasey shared her special visitors with her younger sister, her parents and her neighborhood friends — a reflection of what her mom described as one of Kasey’s best qualities: her selflessness.
“Kasey is the type of kid who’s always thinking about other people, always putting everybody first,” Zachmann said.
A difficult journey
The idea for the event came days after the family learned in late June that Kasey’s cancer — medulloblastoma, a rare type of brain tumor that’s more common in children than adults — had aggressively spread to her lymph nodes, even though the disease rarely moves beyond the brain and the spine, according to medical experts.
But on Friday, just a day before the celebration, her mother said that Kasey’s radiation oncologist believed he could eliminate the cancer in her lymph nodes with a few radiation sessions, potentially giving the family a few more months with Kasey.
“At the time, we thought we were potentially looking at weeks,” Zachmann said. “I was trying to think of fun things that we could do for Kasey to build memories … so we thought it would be amazing to give her the chance to celebrate Christmas one last time.”
Kasey was diagnosed in 2021 and briefly went into remission in 2022 following treatment. But when the cancer returned shortly after treatment ended, the family learned it was terminal.
The survival rate for those who experience a recurrence of medulloblastoma after initial treatment is only around 5%, according to the Medulloblastoma Resource Network.
Kasey’s family has since channeled their “feelings of helplessness” into advocacy, working closely with Children’s National Hospital and The Lilabean Foundation, a local nonprofit, to raise research funds and awareness of pediatric brain cancer — not in time to save Kasey, Zachmann said, but hopefully to help other children.
The family has also spent time crossing items off their bucket list: meeting singer Gwen Stefani, Kasey’s favorite artist; traveling to London; and taking a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World in Florida.
Now, Zachmann said, the priority is simply keeping Kasey as comfortable and pain-free as possible.
“It’s shocking that she has been as strong as she has been, and that she is continuing to fight,” Zachmann said. “She’s defied a lot of odds, but at the same time, it’s taking a toll, and she’s tired. I think she’s ready for her body to have a break.”
Zachmann emphasized she was emotional after seeing the effort her neighbors put into making Saturday night’s event happen — and especially uplifted by how much joy it brought not just to Kasey, but to the community.
“It was magical. We tried to get to every single house, so it took us two hours to drive around,” Zachmann said. “There were people standing out in the rain, waiting to cheer us on. There are really no words to describe how incredible everyone is.”
