After being diagnosed with cancer and before the rapid onslaught of the disease spread to her brain, Marisa Tufaro worked with a hospital writing therapist to chronicle a visit to a “happy place” during her life.
The exercise was designed to distract Marisa from any pain or anxiety she experienced during her last hospitalization.
Marisa, who died two years ago at the age of 13 following complications from a heart transplant, recounted with the writing therapist a trip to the boardwalk, a place she frequented and loved.
Those sojourns to Ocean City, Cape May and Point Pleasant Beach serve as the inspiration for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s second annual boardwalk-themed “Family Fun Night,” which our nonprofit will host at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick on July 18.
The sights, sounds and smells of the boardwalk and Jersey Shore will be brought to life for the hospital’s patients and their families, who will have an opportunity to participate in carnival games and dine on summer food favorites.
The event will also feature a disc jockey, a live musical performance, dinner, giveaways, decorations, a therapy dog and the distribution of toys and prizes to the pediatric patients and their siblings.
More than two dozen volunteers from The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, whose mission is to help children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area, will work with the hospital’s recreation therapy and child life staff to bring the event to life.
The Food Architects of Piscataway have planned a wonderful dinner menu for our guests, while Bovella’s Pastry Shoppe of Westfield is donating dessert and Dairy Queen of Clark is donating ice cream.
The Rutgers University football program, Jenkinson’s Aquarium, the Somerset Patriots and Six Flags Great Adventure have all donated raffle prizes.
Marisa, who was hospitalized at different periods throughout her life for a total of more than two years, benefited from similar events, which helped break the monotony of a lengthy hospital stay and took her mind off her worries or discomfort.
“Thanks to the generosity of community partners like The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, our children and families have the opportunity to take a break from their normal routine,” Sara Mapes, Director of Sponsorships and Engagement at Children’s Specialized Hospital Foundation, said following last year’s event. “Family Fun Night is a fun, interactive program that supports our vision here at Children’s Specialized – a world where all children can reach their full potential.”
Marisa received outstanding care as an outpatient from Children’s Specialized Hospital twice in her life. She benefited most recently from physical therapy at Children’s Specialized Hospital’s New Brunswick location following her July 2016 heart transplant.
The boardwalk-themed event is designed to give back to Children’s Specialized Hospital and to commemorate what would have been Marisa’s 16th birthday, which is July 30.
WOW! Entertainment, a Somerset-based entertainment production company, will provide carnival-style games such as skee ball, whack-a-mole, basketball, ring toss and a claw machine, all of which Marisa also enjoyed during family vacations to Delaware’s Rehoboth Beach.
Chris Pedersen, one of Marisa’s beloved school teachers, and John Scutti, will perform live music inside the hospital cafeteria while guests dine. Their set list will include a host of summertime favorites and children’s songs. Pedersen was honored last year with an award from the New England Songwriting Competition for his children’s song “Tree by a Rolling River.”
Frank Eckert, the Home News Tribune’s 2018 Girls Basketball Coach of the Year from Edison High School who teaches physical education at Edison’s Lindeneau Elementary School, will volunteer his services and expertise, providing dance music as the event’s disc jockey.
Marisa’s parents, Cyndi, principal at James Monroe Elementary School in Edison, and Greg, a sports writer for MyCentralJersey.com and the Home News Tribune, founded The Marisa Tufaro Foundation in their daughter’s loving memory.
The tax-exempt nonprofit, established less than two years ago, has already made a profound impact, donating more than $82,000 to help children in need.
Following are some of the ways in which it has helped pediatric patients and other children in need (please click on links to read about any of the topics below that may pique your interest):
- 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 provider won’t cover certain medical expenses.
- Partnered with Woodbridge High School and the Central Jersey bowling community to deliver hundreds of toys to pediatric patients at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, where Marisa underwent a successful heart transplant.
- 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.
- 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.
- Paid forward the generosity Bishop Ahr 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 a total of 13 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 a total of 14 scholarships to Greater Middlesex Conference student-athletes whose academic performance and extracurricular involvement reflects Marisa’s educational success and whose charitable endeavors align with our foundation’s mission.
- Partnered with Middlesex High School to conduct a coat drive for Middlesex County children.
- Provided gift cards for pediatric patients and their families.
- 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.
- Partnered with Teamwork Unlimited Foundation to treat Special Olympics athletes from the Raritan Bay Area YMCA to a Somerset Patriots game experience.