Members of the Colonia High School football team gathered inside the high school cafeteria last week to tackle a community service project that benefited pediatric patients at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.
Varsity players, volunteering their time on behalf of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, filled Super Bowl gift bags containing snacks and football-themed items that the hospital’s Child Life staff shared with patients and their families during the hospital’s Super Bowl LIV watch party on Sunday afternoon.
The Rutgers University athletics department and an anonymous benefactor donated items for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation to use for its community service project with Colonia. Each patient also received an Amazon gift card and snacks, courtesy of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
Colonia assistant coach Ryan DonDiego joined football captains Chris Waldron, Josh Oluremi and teammate Jerry Charles in delivering the gift bags to the hospital last week.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s leadership, Greg and Cyndi Tufaro, kicked off the community service project at Colonia High School with a brief presentation to the football players, which included the showing of a video about PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital.
The presentation was designed to give the student-athletes perspective and insight into the pediatric patients and families they were serving through the community service project.
Colonia head coach Tom Roarty said his players were moved watching the video and listening to the presentation about PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital, adding “they really poured their whole hearts into the project.”
As an outpatient, Marisa Tufaro received outstanding care from Children’s Specialized Hospital, benefiting most recently from physical therapy following her July 2016 heart transplant. A speech therapist from Children’s Specialized Hospital helped Marisa, who underwent her first open-heart surgery less than a day after birth, learn to drink from a bottle after Marisa for months had been receiving nourishment through a feeding tube.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has a longstanding partnership with Children’s Specialized Hospital, where the nonprofit has hosted an annual boardwalk-themed “Family Fun Night” each of the past two summers.
In addition, the nonprofit partnered with Teamwork Unlimited Foundation to provide medical alert bracelets for Children’s Specialized Hospital’s pediatric patients.
Players from Colonia High School have annually participated in the Autoland Classic, formerly known as the Snapple Bowl, a charity all-star football game from which all proceeds benefit Children’s Specialized Hospital and the Lakeview School, a program of the New Jersey Institute for Disabilities.
The game, which pits players from Middlesex County against a team of counterparts from Union County, has raised more than $700,000 over the past 26 years.
DonDiego has coached in the charity game for years and Colonia High School Athletics Director Ben LaSala has been involved with the contest in various capacities since its inception. In recent years, Colonia has hosted practices for the Middlesex County team.
“Woodbridge Township Schools are quite familiar with giving back and they may be the best in Middlesex County in doing so,” Autoland Classic founder and director Marcus Borden said of the district, whose high schools include Colonia, J.F. Kennedy and Woodbridge, the latter of which has hosted the charity all-star game.
“Seeing a video and learning about Children’s Specialized Hospital is a good experience for (Colonia players), given the relationship between the hospital and the Lakeview School and our game.”
In addition to visiting elementary schools in the district – reading and interacting with students – Colonia football players have previously partnered with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation on another community service project.
They delivered nonperishable food items the high school collected in Marisa’s name during the football team’s 2018 home opener to the Hands of Hope Food Pantry, which serves Middlesex County families.
“That’s something that starts at home,” Woodbridge Township Superintendent of Schools Robert Zega said of Colonia’s volunteerism. “The parents are the kids’ first teachers and that’s something you have to credit the parents with. We try to reinforce it in the schools – giving back and service to others, and just helping your fellow human being. It’s a big part of social and emotional learning, which are big topics in public education right now. We feel that’s a heavy lift we couldn’t do without the parents, teachers, coaches and every adult in their lives.”
Zega said Colonia student-athletes receive more than they give through their involvement in projects such as that which benefitted PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital’s patients.
“Ninety-nine percent of our kids won’t become pro athletes, so I think it’s part of the value of the high school athletics experience,” Zega said, noting student-athletes district-wide “all chip in and do some community service and help out, not only in the community outside of school, but they go around and visit (district elementary and middle) schools and try to be active and positive role models for the younger kids.”
Roarty credited DonDiego with reaching out to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation to partner with the nonprofit on a community service project.
“Me and Ryan talked right after the season and we wanted to get the kids involved in some community service stuff,” Roarty said. “He did a great job putting this together. Ryan does a great job with everything he comes in contact with, from running our defense, to running the weight room to now getting us involved in community service stuff.”
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation was established in loving memory of its namesake, who passed away at the age of 13 three years ago.
Since its inception on July 30, 2017, the nonprofit has already made a profound impact, donating more than $125,000 to assist pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
The foundation, which makes community service an integral part of its mission, has also spearheaded multiple initiatives, resulting in the collection of thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter coats, baby supplies and other items for donation upon which the nonprofit has placed no monetary value.
Marisa, who would have been a junior this year at Edison High School, was born with a complex cardiac defect that required six open-heart surgeries. Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and maintaining hundreds of doctor’s appointments, she lived a vibrant life that inspired. After her sixth surgery, Marisa developed two life-threatening conditions that necessitated a heart transplant. A postoperative complication developed into a rare form of cancer that riddled her brain and body. Marisa succumbed to her illness following a valiant battle on Jan. 30, 2017.
Children’s Specialized Hospital, which annually serves more than 34,000 children statewide at 12 different locations throughout New Jersey, is the nation’s leading provider of inpatient and outpatient care for children from birth to 21 years of age facing special health challenges ranging from chronic illnesses and complex physical disabilities, such as brain and spinal cord injuries, to developmental and behavioral issues such as autism and mental health.
Following are links to some of the ways The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has made a profound impact since its inception.
- Provided funding for a part-time healthcare social worker to assist families of pediatric patients under the care of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Pediatric Cardiology.
- Donated more than $2,500 worth of ShopRite, Target and Walmart gift cards to dozens of Middlesex County families in need, helping parents purchase food, necessities and presents for their children this holiday season.
- Partnered with Woodbridge High School, the Central Jersey bowling community and the Port Reading Fire Department and EMS to deliver more than 1,000 toys to patients at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital this holiday season.
- Sponsored more than 80 South Brunswick High School student-athletes, who donated their time and youthful energy to participate in a charity kickball tournament benefiting an inspirational boy living with an incurable and terminal disease.
- Established a fund at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, from which Marisa received outstanding care for her entire life, to provide financial support to families of pediatric patients from Middlesex County in medical crisis by helping to pay medical, personal or incidental expenses.
- Donated to Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital’s newly established extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program, a specialized cardiac and respiratory support system that saved Marisa’s life at another medical facility following her heart transplant.
- Conducted a boardwalk-themed Family Fun Night for a second consecutive year at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital, where the sights, sounds and smells of the Jersey Shore were brought to patients and their families through carnival games, food, prizes, music and more.
- Partnered with Teamwork Unlimited Foundation to treat Special Olympics athletes from the Raritan Bay Area YMCA to a Somerset Patriots game experience.
- Partnered with the Saint Joseph High School football program and campus ministry to pack and donate more than 200 “Weekend Snack Bags” for pediatric patients’ families at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.
- Supported instruction and supplies for an art therapy program at Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital for a third consecutive year.
- Funded the purchase of uniforms (shirts and shorts) for campers at Kiddie Keep Well Camp, which serves more than 600 underserved Middlesex County children annually.
- Partially funded the Make-A-Wish of a Middlesex County girl who was born with a complex cardiac defect to vacation with her family at Walt Disney World.
- Provided six summer art camp scholarships to Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum for Middlesex County elementary and middle school students.
- Provided college scholarship dollars to 10 high school students whose classroom performance and extracurricular involvement reflected Marisa’s educational success and whose charitable endeavors aligned with our foundation’s mission.
- Sponsored a Middlesex County elementary school’s field trip to Special Strides Therapeutic Riding Center in Monroe, where students from self-contained autistic classes were afforded the opportunity to interact with horses and baby goats.
- As a way of giving back to the Rutgers University baseball program, whose roster features several players that have supported our nonprofit, our foundation matched the Scarlet Knights’ fundraising efforts with a donation to Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital’s child life program.
- Assisted multiple families whose children are in medical crisis, providing financial support through the payment of medical and/or personal expenses. Respecting their privacy, the foundation never divulges the names of those individuals or the dollar amount of assistance it provides.
- Paid forward the generosity Saint Thomas Aquinas High School has bestowed upon our foundation with a donation to the school community’s 21st annual Ahr Star spaghetti dinner, whose beneficiaries included a 9-year-old boy from Middlesex County with multiple disabilities.
- Partnered with the Edison and J.P. Stevens high school girls basketball teams to collect baby care items to donate to the Edison-based Ozanam Family Shelter.
- Partnered with the Middlesex County Association of School Administrators to offer financial relief to parents of children in medical crisis who lost wages while caring for their child at the hospital, who lack health insurance or whose insurance provider won’t cover certain medical expenses.
- Funded the purchase of brand-new metal bunk beds for campers at Kiddie Keep Well Camp, which serves more than 600 underserved Middlesex County children annually.
- Partnered with Old Bridge and South Brunswick high schools to collect thousands of toys for pediatric patients at Saint Peter’s University Children’s Hospital and Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital.
- Partnered with the Kittim N. Sherrod Foundation to provide a youth football and cheerleading organization with a bilingual state-of-the art automated external defibrillator, as well as AED and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for adult members of the organization.
- Supported instruction and supplies for an art therapy program at Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital, to which our foundation also provided funds for infant mobiles and toy cars staff use to transport children to the operating room for surgery.
- Provided money for equipment and supplies for students with disabilities who utilize the Lakeview School’s newly constructed aquatics center.
- Partnered with Teamwork Unlimited Foundation to provide medical alert bracelets to children with autism and pediatric patients with chronic illness who receive outstanding care from Children’s Specialized Hospital, which annually serves more than 34,000 children statewide.
- Partially funded the Make-A-Wish of a Middlesex County boy who is winning a battle with high-risk neuroblastoma to vacation with his family at Walt Disney World.
- Provided physical therapy at Special Strides Therapeutic Riding Center and Project Walk for Middlesex County children whose families do not have health insurance or whose families’ health insurer does not cover the cost of the physical therapy.
- Partnered with Edison High School and the Chamberlain College of Nursing for two consecutive years to raise money and collect nonperishable food items to benefit Middlesex County children and their families through Hands of Hope via our foundation’s participation in the Race to Outrun Hunger.
- Provided new iPads and gaming system accessories (Xbox and PS4 games, controllers, chargers) for adolescent patients at Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital.
- Partnered with Woodbridge High School and the Central Jersey bowling community to deliver hundreds of toys to patients at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, where Marisa underwent a successful heart transplant.
- Provided 7 summer art camp scholarships to Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum for Middlesex County elementary and middle school students.
- Provided college scholarship dollars to 7 high school students whose classroom performance and extracurricular involvement reflected Marisa’s educational success and whose charitable endeavors aligned with our foundation’s mission.
- Made a donation in honor of Piscataway’s Conackamack Middle School, which honored Marisa during its 27th annual Turkey Trot, to the township’s FISH Hospitality Program, which provides shelter, meals, clothing and other services to homeless families in Middlesex County.
- Provided James Monroe Elementary School students with food items to fill a hundred “Weekend Snack Bags” for pediatric patients’ families.
- Provided meals and goods for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House of Central Jersey.
- Partnered with Middlesex High School to conduct a coat drive for Middlesex County children.
- Provided gift cards for pediatric patients and their families.