A three-event competition involving more than 200 students and 50 faculty members, the South Brunswick High School Viking Cup for Philanthropy had multiple victors, but the biggest winners are children in need.
All proceeds from the charity event benefit The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, whose mission is to assist pediatric patients and under-resourced children throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
“Today we had our final event for the Viking Cup,” said South Brunswick High School Athletics Director C.J. Hendricks, who organized the unique fundraiser. “This was our inaugural year of putting together a student and staff initiative committed to supporting the work of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
“The mission is to provide financial support and awareness through community service with fun and collaborative school-based activities.”
The event concluded with a volleyball tournament, which a student team, creatively named “Empire Strikes Back,” won. Previous competitions included a faculty versus student basketball game and dodgeball tournament.
Please click HERE to view a photo gallery from the Viking Cup volleyball tournament
“This was a great opportunity for our staff to get together with students outside the classroom and after the school bell rings,” said Hendricks. “Getting the kids together to do fun stuff like this is super-important.”
As an educator and former high school baseball coach, Hendricks has always instilled in his students and players the importance of community service and philanthropy.
In his second year as an administrator at South Brunswick, he put a new twist on giving back and paying forward with the creation of the Viking Cup.
“It’s something as a teacher I always tried to focus on with my students,” Hendricks explained. “As a coach, I tried to make sure we were involved in the community at South Brunswick. Being in this new position as the AD at South Brunswick High School, I’m trying to expose our kids to acts of service.”
All ticket sales from the three competitions benefit The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, which in less than six years has already donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to fulfill its mission.
The nonprofit has also donated thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter jackets, baby supplies, and other items upon which it has placed no monetary value.
In addition, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has awarded $26,500 in college academic scholarships to 38 exceptional Middlesex County high school students who advance the nonprofit’s mission. Recipients include former South Brunswick High School Meet of Champions track and field star Liz Matticoli.
Please click HERE to view a photo gallery from the Viking Cup basketball game
“The beauty about being at South Brunswick is we already have such a great foundation of service throughout our school-community,” Hendricks said. “There’s plenty of organizations that do great work. A lot of our sports teams are involved in philanthropy. I think just trying to connect more on a global scale, in terms of getting our entire student body involved in conjunction with our athletic department is really just the goal. I want all our kids to contribute as much as they can so when they leave South Brunswick and they go to a university or they go out into the community, they have a sense of pride in what they’ve done and want to continue to pay those great gestures forward.”
Teachers from various departments and coaches from multiple sports joined student-athletes and other students from across the high school to participate in the Viking Cup for Philanthropy.
Please click HERE to watch a video of the Viking Cup basketball game
Jim Gano, owner of Crown Trophy of Flemington, generously donated a beautiful trophy for Hendricks to annually present to the winning side. The large championship cup sits atop a solid wooden base with space for engraved annual results and a custom nameplate. The trophy will be prominently displayed in a case at the high school.
Marisa Tufaro was born with a complex cardiac defect that required six open-heart surgeries. A heart transplant, which was supposed to extend her life, tragically cut it short after a postoperative complication developed into a rare form of cancer to which Marisa succumbed in 2017 following a valiant battle. She was just 13 years old.
Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and maintaining hundreds of doctor’s appointments, Marisa was an honor roll student involved in myriad extracurricular activities who lived a vibrant life that inspired.
Under Hendricks and current head coach Tim Sweeney, the South Brunswick baseball program has a long tradition of giving back to the community.
The South Brunswick Diamond Club has made a generous donation to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation each of the last six years.
The Vikings participate annually in the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge. Designed to heighten awareness about autism, the event also serves as a fundraiser for Teamwork Unlimited, an Edison-based nonprofit whose mission is to help those in need.
A perennial conference power, South Brunswick’s charitable contributions are on par with its success on the diamond.
Hendricks commenced an annual tradition of helping others in 2016 when his program supported baby Shane O’Donnell, the son of former Middlesex High School head baseball coach Mike O’Donnell, who was engaged in a life-threatening battle with high-risk nueroblastoma.
In addition to wearing “Shane Strong” shirts during warmups before a game against Middlesex at TD Bank Ballpark in Somerset, South Brunswick made a donation to the GoFundMe page created to raise money for the O’Donnell family.
Just as South Brunswick players stood in solidarity with counterparts from Middlesex, they did the same in 2019 against Old Bridge during an emotional pregame ceremony in which the jersey number of former star Zach Attianese was retired. Attianese tragically died along with his loving father Jude in a six-vehicle car crash on Father’s Day weekend nearly five years ago. In addition to once again wearing specially designed shirts, this time in honor of Zach, South Brunswick contributed to a scholarship fund the Old Bridge school-community established in the former ace’s loving memory.
South Brunswick players have assisted the township’s youth baseball program on Opening Day and participated in free clinics for youngsters. Independently, players in the baseball program engage in other community service projects.
Hendricks spearheaded a disaster relief effort in 2017, collecting supplies for survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where his father lived for more than a dozen years and where his maternal grandparents were born and raised.
In 2020, Hendricks joined his peers in organizing the first annual Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association Charity Golf Outing. The wildly successful event has raised more than $11,000 for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
Four years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation sponsored 70 South Brunswick student-athletes, covering their registration fees to participate in a charity kickball tournament benefiting Ray Fantel, a courageous student in the school district living with an incurable disease and the younger brother of current Vikings baseball star Ethan Fantel.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation was recently honored to pay forward the kindness of Hendricks, jumpstarting his own fundraiser last year with a $1,000 donation that benefited Fantel and South Brunswick Public Schools’ Special Olympics Unified programs.
Hendricks raised money for the two special causes through his participation in the 49th annual Long Beach Island Commemorative 18 Mile Run.
South Brunswick baseball players and their families also supported Hendricks’ fundraiser.