“Forever 7”: Community Returns to Ridge and Stone Tuesday for Second Annual Balloon Release Honoring Hakeem Badger

Hakeem Badger

Rochester, NY - Greece, NY Family, friends, and neighbors will gather on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. at the intersection of West Ridge Road and Stone Road in Greece for the second annual “Forever 7” balloon release in memory of Hakeem Badger.

They will stand on the exact ground where Hakeem was struck by a U Haul truck while crossing the street on July 4, 2024. He was seven years old. He died of his injuries days later.

The gathering is led by Hakeem’s mother, Cyonna Badger, and supported by the Diverse Mosaic Community Center. It is not a rally and not a press conference. It is a mother’s opportunity to grieve her son something the past two years have rarely allowed her.

Hakeem was a third grader at Munn Elementary in Spencerport. He loved to dance. He loved video games. To everyone who loved him, he will always be seven. In the two years since, Cyonna has carried her grief under conditions few parents could imagine: mourning her child while facing prosecution in connection with his death, and continuing to show up every day as a mother to her surviving children. She has grieved in public, on a clock she did not set, while still making breakfast, still braiding hair, still parenting.

“Most people get to fall apart in private. She never got that,” said Karen Crittenden of the Diverse Mosaic Community Center. “She has been grieving her son while under a microscope, and still getting up every morning to be the best mother she can be to the children who are still here. That is not weakness and it is not spectacle. That is strength, and Tuesday she gets to just be Hakeem’s mom.”

DMCC has walked alongside the Badger family since the earliest days of this loss. The organization’s presence Tuesday is rooted in the same commitment that guides all of its work: that healing belongs to families, that grief is not a private failure, and that no parent should have to mourn alone.

DMCC staff will be present throughout the gathering to offer support and connection to healing centered resources. Karen Crittenden will serve as the on site representative on the day of the event. DMCC Founder and Executive Director Cherriese, who has served as point lead and advocate for the Badger family throughout, is available for all questions, interviews, and follow up.

Event Details:

What: Second Annual “Forever 7” Balloon Release in Memory of Hakeem Badger

When: Tuesday, July 21, 2026 4:00 p.m.

Where: West Ridge Road and Stone Road, Greece, NY

Who: Hosted by Cyonna Badger, supported by Diverse Mosaic Community Center