A Canberra preschool has paid tribute to Rozalia Spadafora, with a special "restaurant" opened in honour of the five-year-old.
Griffith Bannister Gardens Preschool marked the opening of "Rozalia's Italian Restaurant" on Sunday night. The restaurant is a cubbyhouse complete with cooking utensils, a counter and pizza ingredients (made out of felt). Children at the preschool are able to use the tables and chairs paired with the restaurant during play times.
Rozalia tragically died on July 5, just one day after her fifth birthday.
The sign for the restaurant has Rozalia's hand prints along with a print of her name as written by the five-year-old.
There were a series of fundraisers to build the restaurant including a special dress-up day at the school, which was held as a tribute to Rozalia.
Many Canberra businesses also contributed to the restaurant, and relatives of Rozalia's built the cubbyhouse.
The school community and Rozalia's large family gathered at the school on Sunday night to celebrate the opening of the restaurant and pay tribute to the "sparkly and fun" five year old.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the restaurant was done by Rozalia's big brother, Vincenzo.
The idea for the restaurant came from Rozalia's preschool teachers. Her teacher, Julie Ferguson told the crowd at the event they wanted to pay tribute to and celebrate the beautiful preschool student.
"Bronwyn and I felt it was essential that we got an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the preschool student that Rozalia was, [as] there were just a small handful of us who got to experience that," she said.
"Our mission is to make sure that no one leaves here tonight without a better understanding of our beautiful preschool friend."
The crowd was told that when Rozalia started preschool at the beginning of the year she had spent "every minute of every day" in tears as she missed her family so much.
Ms Ferguson said Rozalia eventually grew more comfortable with being away from home.
"It wasn't long before we saw that shiny, sparkly, fun, effervescent little girl light up any room she was in," she said.
Rozalia loved the swings and loved creating. She spent many hours painting - mainly with her hands - and loved being at the "making table" to create masterpieces for her family.
She also loved music and dancing and could recite the words to all of her favourite songs. She loved her friends and was described as "kind and generous all of the time".
The inspiration for the restaurant came from the fact that Rozalia would always pretend to cook things using playdough or sand.
"Her ability to flip an imaginary pancake was truly inspiring and she could manage the constant phone calls in the pretend cafe like a pro," Ms Ferguson said.
"The restaurant will continue to remind everyone that life is precious and we need to make the best of every minute."
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