The Pucillo family are, from left, Marie, Giovanni, Elena Rose and Evan. Evan will climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in February to raise money for a nonprofit organization that supports families, like the Pucillos, coping with the death of an infant. | Submitted, Evan Pucillo
Published on December 12, 2025 at 2:25 pm
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Five years after the death of their young son, a Nocatee couple is raising money for families whose children died prematurely. But instead of a typical fundraiser, Evan Pucillo plans to climb the highest peak in Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro.
The Pucillos’ son, Joseph, was born at around 25 weeks of gestation, Pucillo says. He died hours after he was born.
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“I’m really grateful that we had those hours with him,” Pucillo says. “I got to hold him, talk to him. I got to share some of those precious moments with him. I can’t ever forget that. I’ll have that with me forever as long as I live.”
After the trauma of losing their young son and the emergency surgery Marie Pucillo had to undergo to save her life, the couple found support in the nonprofit organization Return to Zero: HOPE.
The organization provides mental health support to parents who have lost a pregnancy or an infant.
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Now, the Pucillo family wants to give back.
Evan Pucillo, who works as an assistant professor at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, launched a plan to climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in memory of the fifth anniversary of his young son’s death, raising money for Return to Zero: HOPE in the process.
“Climbing this gigantic mountain, I saw this metaphorically as a symbol for what my wife and I and our family experienced when we lost our son,” he says.
Hiking the Kilimanjaro
Pucillo plans to begin the seven-day climb to get to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro on Feb. 9, the day when his son Joseph was born.
Pucillo says the goal of the 42-mile hike up the Tanzanian peak is to reckon with his own trauma, but to remind other people they aren’t alone if they’re coping with the death of a child.
“There will be times when you feel alone. You’re going to feel like maybe you’re standing at the bottom of the most gigantic mountain you’ve ever faced in your life, and you’re just standing at the base of this mountain looking up at the summit and wondering, ‘How in the world are you going to get out of this grief and climb this mountain?’” Pucillo says.
He continues, “There’s unfortunately so many people out there who have experienced a loss like this, and as tragic as it is, it’s kind of like becoming part of a community. And there’s people out there that are willing to talk to you, people out there that are willing to help.”
Pucillo’s goal is to raise $10,000 for Return to Zero: HOPE.
For more information about his climb, or to donate, go to Return to Zero: HOPE’s website.
