Forty-four isn’t just an average number for Caisse Gore.
“Forty-four is on every license plate,” Gore said. “Everybody’s license plate has 44 on it. I just feel him all the time. Nothing scary happens. I always know he’s around. I always feel his presence. If I say, ‘I need a little extra strength today, talk to your friend God up there and send it down,’ it just happens, and I’m ready.”
When he was 17, Gore’s son Jadon Phillips was found unresponsive in his bed on Christmas Eve of 2020. After being rushed to the hospital, it was determined that his brain was bleeding and that he needed emergency surgery, which he had on Christmas Day. Jadon’s doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia diagnosed him with a brain tumor in late February of 2021 and scheduled a tumor biopsy/resection surgery for March 3. Post-surgery, the tumor – most of which was removed – was sent to the lab to be studied. About a week later, the report came back that diagnosed the tumor as glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain cancer. Jadon’s disease progressed rapidly, and at just 18 years old, he passed away on February 1, 2022. Jadon was always a strong kid, no matter what he went through; a warrior who played football at Delran High School. He was the athlete that had to be tackled by more than one player because of his size and strength. Jadon’s jersey number was 44.
“When he passed away, I thought, ‘What can I do with this pain? How do I turn it into some kind of purpose?’” Gore said. While Jadon was sick, charitable foundations helped Gore’s family cover essential expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic, inspiring her to create the Jadon Strong Foundation after his death to provide the same support to other families facing pediatric cancer.
Almost four weeks to the date that Jadon passed, Gore and her best friend Vanessa Johnson founded the Jadon Strong Foundation, whose vision is to provide relief to New Jersey and Pennsylvania families facing pediatric brain cancer by providing emotional and financial support. After going through the process on how to get the Jadon Strong Foundation started, they hit the ground running. The foundation’s motto is “All Gas, No Brakes,” because that’s how Jadon lived. He was full of energy, a caring individual with a heart of gold. In Gore’s eyes, Jadon was a gentle giant who would do anything for anyone. Six months after the foundation originated, they hosted their first gala, and since then, they developed additional major events including a car show and a 5K.
“God needed him back for something bigger than what he was doing down here, and I believe it’s the foundation,” Gore said. “He needed him up there, so he could help me figure out [how to] help people down here.”
Gore, born in California, moved to New Jersey with her family when she was four years old. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education from Rider University and a master’s degree in school leadership from Wilmington University. She just entered her eighteenth year as an eighth grade English teacher at William Allen Middle School (WAMS) in Moorestown. She loves watching her students grow from September to June, not just on the page but as people, and she believes that she couldn’t have picked a better profession. Aside from teaching her students how to be amazing readers and writers, Gore is also big at teaching them character, and how to be respectful and compassionate for other people.
After Jadon’s initial diagnosis, Gore took a brief hiatus from teaching to care for and support him. She returned to the classroom in September of 2022, and she felt that she was placed with an amazing class. She believes her students at that time will never understand how much of an impact they had on her. Initially she wasn’t going to share her story with them, but she decided anyway, and in doing so that made the school year all the more meaningful.
“They rallied around me, and we had a phenomenal year,” Gore said. “They didn’t realize how much they got me through. I wasn’t ready, I could’ve stayed out another year, but I didn’t. I went back, and I never looked back.”
Gore believes that the Moorestown community has been the backbone for the foundation, lending support wherever needed. Last year, the Moorestown Education Association provided the foundation with F.A.S.T. (Families and Schools Together Work for Children) grant funds to host community events that will service students and families in the community and teach them about the cause and how they can get active. The F.A.S.T. program works to encourage families to be involved in their children’s education, to enhance their academic progress and to feel welcome in public schools.
For Gore, Moorestown remains a great place to work. The kids, families and staff are all amazing, she shared, and given that she still has a passion for teaching, she feels that her work means something to her. If a student isn’t crazy about reading or writing, Gore finds that to be a challenge, and she’ll go out of her way to find a book that taps into who that child is. She’s the teacher that cries on the last day of school because she’s formed such a bond with her students.
The love that Gore has for her profession runs deep. She strives to be the teacher that helps her students realize how it can be fun to learn. Even after they leave her and move on they always come back to visit, and she looks forward to seeing them walk through her door again. What Gore has done in the classroom all these years mirrors what she does with the Jadon Strong Foundation, and that includes shining a light on those who need it when things get dark.
The Jadon Strong Foundation wouldn’t be possible without the help of Vanessa Johnson, who lost her father to cancer in 2020, along with several aunts and uncles over the past years. She currently lives in Florida and envisions starting a chapter for the foundation in the Sunshine State. As much as Gore loves the idea, she’s hoping to see Johnson move back to New Jersey. The pair, close as sisters, are a force to be reckoned with when they are together. Johnson, like Gore, is locked into the foundation’s mission, always thinking of new ideas. They talk every day, giving a shoulder for the other to lean on, and it’s their shared passion for helping others that binds them together.
“I don’t know what I would do without her,” Gore said. “I call Vanessa when I’m having a moment and she talks me down from the moment and helps me get to where I need to be.”
Jadon was not only protective of his mom but also his baby sister Brooke, now 21. Gore always saw them thick as thieves. While Brooke is achieving her professional goals and pursuing her passion as an equestrian, Gore wonders what Jadon would be doing now, in 2026. Wherever he ended up, she knows he would be doing big things.
What keeps Gore going is knowing how proud Jadon would be of all that she’s doing. He was the one that would sing her praises out loud, something that she deeply misses, but she believes he sends her all kinds of signs. Every day at work, during her prep period, she walks a path that’s between WAMS and Moorestown High School, and there is always a visitor following right behind her. “As I’m walking (the path) almost every day, there’s the fattest and brightest red cardinal I’ve ever seen in my life that follows me through the woods,” Gore said. “It bops around and follows me on my walk and I’m always thinking, ‘Alright Jadon, what are you doing?’”
As if that isn’t enough, Jadon’s grandmother also gets a visit from a cardinal who pecks at her bedroom window, reassuring her that he’s always around. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, seeing a cardinal symbolizes a visit from a loved one who has passed away.
The Jadon Strong Foundation will always be about helping others and getting back that same energy. It’s still growing with the goal to help as many families as possible and raise awareness for brain cancer. The pain that Gore feels is something that she wouldn’t wish on anyone, but she continues to turn her pain into purpose.
“I’m always going to represent Jadon,” Gore said. “He’s at peace and that brings me peace. We suffer without him, but ultimately, I know he’s with me, and he’s in a better place […] He keeps us strong.”
Gore’s faith gives her comfort in knowing that she and Jadon will be together again someday. Until then, she is determined to live in a way that would make him proud, carrying his memory with her in everything she does and making each day count in his honor.
