The St. Joseph High School football team is donating the entire gate from its home opener to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation and selling commemorative T-shirts at home games throughout the season with all proceeds benefiting the tax-exempt nonprofit.
University of Notre Dame commit John Olmstead (offensive tackle) of St. Joseph and University of Alabama commit Antonio Alfano (defensive end) of Colonia, who are ranked among the best in the country at their respective positions, are among the top players who will be showcased in the Sept. 8 home opener.
St. Joseph, which has posted an 18-2 record over the past two seasons while winning consecutive Greater Middlesex Conference White Division championships, returns five Home News Tribune All-Area performers. They include Temple University commit Nate Wyatt, Jordan Davis, Jalen Murray, Brian Reilly and Olmstead.
Established 13 months ago in loving memory of Marisa Tufaro, who died last year at the age of 13 following complications from a heart transplant, the mission of the foundation bearing her name is to help children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has already made a profound impact, donating nearly $50,000 and spearheading multiple community initiatives to help pediatric patients and others in need, as well as awarding college scholarship dollars to exceptional high school students who advance the nonprofit’s mission.
Greg Tufaro, a 1985 graduate of St. Joseph who covers the high school’s football team as a veteran sports writer for USA TODAY NETOWRK New Jersey, and his wife, Cyndi, founded The Marisa Tufaro Foundation to keep alive their daughter’s indomitable spirit and give back to a community that has long showed overwhelming support.
“The unique thing about athletics and schools is they always take care of their own, and St. Joseph in this case certainly is helping out Greg and the Tufaro Foundation in an unforgettable way,” said Frank Noppenberger, executive director of the Greater Middlesex Conference, of which St. Joseph is a member.
Noppenberger commended the St. Joseph administration for approving the football program’s initiative to donate to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation and praised the entire school-community – especially the players, their parents and the coaches – for collaborating on the effort.
“It’s rewarding to see schools paying it forward,” Noppenberger said. “I applaud St. Joseph for what they are doing, especially in this day and age, when parochial schools are closing because of finances, and you’ve got a school looking at the bigger picture and seeing how this is going to help kids in the future.”
Upon returning home from her heart transplant following a nearly three-month stay in the hospital, including more than 40 days in the intensive care unit, Marisa received a St. Joseph football sweatshirt, get well card and gift card from the coaching staff and players.
Less than a month later, Marisa was diagnosed with post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments failed to thwart the relentless onslaught of the disease, which riddled her brain and body. Marisa succumbed to her illness Jan. 30, 2017.
More than a dozen representatives of the St. Joseph football program – including current seniors David Barr, Reilly and Olmstead – attended Marisa’s wake, where the St. Joseph football sweatshirt coaches and players gave her was displayed.
Marisa was born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, 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, Marisa lived a vibrant life that inspired. She was an honor roll student and participated in several extracurricular activities.
Greg and Cyndi Tufaro attended an annual team barbecue and cornhole tournament at St. Joseph on Saturday, where parents of players presented each of them with a commemorative T-shirt.
The back of the green T-shirts with white screen print – mirroring St. Joseph’s colors – bear the school’s official logo of an interlocking STJ beneath a halo and flanked by angel’s wings. The words “Marisa’s Missionaries” are positioned underneath the logo and above a message reading “THE FALCON FLOCK FLIES WITH AN ANGEL TO SUPPORT THE MARISA TUFARO FOUNDATION.” The official school logo appears above the word “FOOTBALL” on the front of the T-shirts.
The Tufaros will attend St. Joseph’s home opener, along with State Senator Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., a member of the Tufaro Foundation’s board of trustees, who will take a brief moment to address the Falcons in the locker room before kickoff, thanking the players and coaches for their benevolence while letting them know their impact transcends the playing field.
Other St. Joseph athletic programs, including the school’s ice hockey, basketball and baseball teams, have supported The Marisa Tufaro Foundation. USA TODAY featured the St. Joseph ice hockey program’s relationship with the Tufaro family in a story that appeared online last year. Baseball players from St. Joseph joined their peers across the Greater Middlesex Conference in wearing commemorative purple wristbands bearing Marisa’s initials in the months after her passing. Basketball and baseball players from the school have competed in charity all-star games benefiting the foundation.
As a fifth-grader at James Monroe Elementary School in Edison, Marisa Tufaro conducted a video interview with former St. Joseph basketball star Karl-Anthony Towns during National Take Your Child to Work Day.
Following are some of the ways in which The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has impacted children in need (please click on the links to read in detail about each initiative) …
- 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.
- 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 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 the 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.
- Conducted a boardwalk-themed Family Fun Night at 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 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 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.
- Assisted multiple families whose children are in medical crisis, providing financial support through the payment of medical and/or personal expenses to help lessen the burden of parents who have lost wages while spending time at the hospital.
- Provided summer art camp scholarships to Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum for Middlesex County elementary and middle school students.
- Rewarded high school students for their community service to children with scholarships.
- Provided meals and goods for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House of Central Jersey.
- Provided scholarships to Greater Middlesex Conference student-athletes.
- Partnered with Middlesex High School to conduct a coat drive for Middlesex County children.
- Provided gift cards for pediatric patients and their families.