The crosstown rival Edison and J.P. Stevens high school girls basketball teams partnerered with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation to collect baby care items for donation to the Ozanam Family Shelter.
The shelter, located in Edison, can accommodate 26 families and 16 single women, and provides residents with temporary or emergency lodging, meals, physical and mental health assessments, crisis counseling, as well as assistance with housing and employment.
In addition, the shelter’s staff arranges for children’s educational placement, case management and referrals.
The baby care items – including diapers, wipes, washcloths, baby clothes and towels – were collected outside the entrance of Frank Cangelosi Gymnasium at Edison High School prior to the Feb. 3 freshman (3:45 p.m.), junior varsity (5:15 p.m.) and varsity (7 p.m.) games.
WATCH: Video highlights from the varsity game
Established less than two-and-a-half years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has already made a profound impact, donating more than $125,000 to help 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 community 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.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has 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.
The Feb. 3 meeting between the rivals marked the third straight year the girls basketball programs from both high schools have supported The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, with each team also having previously fundraised for the nonprofit.
“Our athletic programs are fortunate to be able to compete at a high level and anything we do to give back to the community, we can’t do enough,” said Edison High School Athletics Director Jeff DiCocco, who praised the Eagles and Hawks for their combined effort.
“I think it’s great that our young student-athletes and our coaching staff, as well as our community members that (dropped) off the items, are reaching out to help others.”
Edison head coach Frank Eckert was named the Home News Tribune’s Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the 2017-18 campaign, an honor the newspaper bestowed upon J.P. Stevens head coach Amy Field last season.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s namesake, 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, Marisa Tufaro 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 – known as post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder – that riddled her brain and body.
Marisa, who was an honor roll student at both James Monroe Elementary School, where her mother, Cyndi, is now the principal, and Herbert Hoover Middle School, succumbed to her illness following a valiant battle on Jan. 30, 2017. She was just 13 years old.
“Having the opportunity to contribute and spread the word of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation is a great honor and coincides with what our team believes,” said Eckert, who met Marisa when Cyndi Tufaro was his colleague at Lindeneau Elementary School, where he is a physical education teacher.
“Our team philosophy is to fight to the end and to never give up. It’s the type of thinking that has given our team so much success. I’ve had the chance to meet Marisa a few times throughout the years and she truly was a confident person that would always push forward past any obstacle.
“Marisa was also a very generous person, which is why our team felt so compelled to be a part of the foundation’s mission.”
Cyndi Tufaro, a 1988 Edison High School graduate, and her husband Greg, a longtime Home News Tribune sportswriter, established The Marisa Tufaro Foundation in their daughter’s loving memory.
The nonprofit keeps alive Marisa’s indomitable spirit and allows her legacy to be one of helping others.
During the shootaround before the Feb. 3 varsity contest, players from both teams wore specially designed T-shirts in their respective school colors.
The T-shirts bore The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s official logo on the front. The words “Marisa’s Missionaries” was inscribed on the back beneath a basketball flanked by angel wings and positioned under a halo.
The words “The Edison Eagles and J.P. Stevens Hawks fly with an angel to support The Marisa Tufaro Foundation” were also part of the T-shirt design.
All spectators in attendance at the Feb. 3 varsity game received a complimentary wristband from The Marisa Tufaro Foundation
Eckert has volunteered as a disc jockey each of the past two summers at The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s boardwalk-themed Family Fun Night at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick, where the sights, sounds and smells of the Jersey Shore are brought to pediatric patients and their families.
Edison and J.P. Stevens student-athletes from several other sports including baseball, bowling, football, wrestling and swimming have also supported The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
Football players from Edison partnered with the nonprofit two years in a row to participate in a 5K walk that raised money and generated nonperishable food items for the township’s Hands of Hope food pantry.
Following are links to some of the other ways the 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.