GMC Baseball Coaches Association Establishes Marisa Tufaro Memorial Arts Scholarship

The first annual Marisa Tufaro Memorial Arts Scholarship was made possible through a donation to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation on behalf of a member of the Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association who wishes to remain anonymous.

Through the benefactor’s wonderful generosity, two scholarship recipients, both middle school students from Middlesex County, have been afforded the opportunity to attend a week-long arts camp this summer at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Arts Museum, where Marisa previously honed her craft and where her artwork was once displayed at an exhibit.

The recipients of the first annual Marisa Tufaro Memorial Arts Scholarship share her passion and talent for art.

Marisa at the Zimmerli Arts Museum in 2012 being awarded a generous Summer Arts Scholarship for her achievement in camp and based on her potentialSAMSUNG

Edison High School baseball coach Vinnie Abene, who serves as the Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association’s president, said a coach from the league called him immediately after attending Marisa’s wake and proposed the idea of an arts scholarship.

“There are a lot of great guys in our association and there were a lot of ideas that were thrown around at the time,” said Abene, whose coaches association recently held a fundraiser for Marisa (more on that later) and in addition made a generous donation to the foundation, separate from that of the coach who requested anonymity regarding the arts scholarship.

“There was one particular coach that was really moved by what he saw at the wake with the amount of art projects that Marisa had accomplished and created. That truly inspired him to have a unique idea. He called me the same night as the wake and told me what his idea was, and he certainly made it a point that he wanted to keep it anonymous because it wasn’t about him. He just wanted to make sure that some worthy students would use the money toward an art scholarship.”

Members of the Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association.

A representative of the Zimmerli Arts Museum, who processed the camp registrations for the two Marisa Tufaro Memorial Arts Scholarship recipients, told Marisa’s father, Greg, that she was incredibly impressed with the anonymous coach’s generosity and thoughtfulness. She said the scholarship in Marisa’s name was an outstanding and fitting tribute.

The Zimmerli Art Museum’s Summer Art Camp welcomes artists between the ages of 7 and 14 of all ability levels to interact and study with some of New Jersey’s best teaching artists.

Wes Sherman, who holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts and is a highly successful independent artist, heads the Summer Art Camp faculty.

Marisa’s ambition was to attend an arts college, and while God’s plan did not allow her to make it to one, her work did. A piece Marisa constructed with a New York City School of Visual Arts graduate student during an art therapy session at New York Presbyterian’s Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital was displayed at the “Your Turn” exhibit at the college’s Flatiron Gallery in Manhattan in February.

Visitors to the New York City School of Visual Arts’ “Your Turn” exhibit at the college’s Flatiron Gallery in Manhattan view a piece of art Marisa made in the hospital with an art therapist.

According to Rutgers University’s website “During the hot days of summer, the Zimmerli is the place to be for budding young artists. Each year, new classes are added to stimulate, challenge, and delight both veteran and newcomers who participate in the program. The Zimmerli continues to offer its popular classes in painting, drawing, pastels, watercolors, sculpture, and an art “sampler” class. Children also find inspiration in the museum’s collections as they explore the galleries.”

The arts scholarship is not the Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association’s first endeavor at keeping alive Marisa’s memory and honoring her legacy.

Earlier this month, all proceeds from the Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association’s fourth annual all-star doubleheader benefited The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.

The games featured more than 80 of the league’s top high school players at national award-winning Raymond J. Cipperly Field on the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical School’s East Brunswick campus. Spectators were not charged admission but were welcome to make a donation to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.

During the opening week of the Greater Middlesex Conference baseball season, approximately 600 of the league’s players and coaches wore specially designed purple wristbands, reflecting Marisa’s favorite color, and bearing her initials in white letters for the conference’s season-opening games.

The Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association organized and sponsored the show of solidarity and respect. Several players and coaches sported the wristbands for the duration of the season.