Edison head football coach Matt Fulham and his wife Maria, who teaches English as a Second Language at the high school, rallied their players and students to partner with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation on a community service project that benefited Middlesex County children in need and their families.

In lieu of film study and practice on Saturday morning, Matt Fulham asked his players to join our nonprofit’s team of racers and walkers in the Race to Outrun Hunger, a 5K that benefitted the Hands of Hope Food Pantry.

Matt Fulham’s players and Maria Fulham’s ESL students navigated the scenic 5K course at Roosevelt Park and spent the weeks leading up to the event collecting nonperishable food items to donate to the pantry.

Committed to providing an efficient and centralized system for distributing food to alleviate hunger in the Middlesex County area, the pantry provided more than 9,400 bags of food to families last year.

Matt Fulham said a desire to teach the value of community service to his student-athletes outweighed the significance of canceling a regularly scheduled practice that was supposed to take place hours after Edison pulled away from East Brunswick for a pivotal victory that has the Eagles (4-2) off to their best start in nearly two decades.

On the verge of qualifying for the playoffs, Edison would have benefited from an extra day of preparation for an upcoming game against J.F. Kennedy, which the Eagles likely need to win to secure a postseason berth.

“In general terms, it always makes me feel very proud when I see high school coaches who get it,” said Rutgers University Director of High School Relations Rick Mantz, a past president of the New Jersey Football Coaches Association. “They understand there’s a bigger picture and role for us in our community, and that as much as I’d like to win that next game, let’s take a day and help our communities.”

The presence of Edison High School, which sent nearly 100 students to the Race to Outrun Hunger, including more than a dozen varsity baseball players, was palpable at the event. A generous benefactor, who would like to remain anonymous, subsidized the entry fee for the high school’s participants. All proceeds from the event, which race director and former Edison Township Public Schools student Stephen Dennis organized, benefit the food pantry.

“Those kids look forward to helping the community in any way they can,” Edison head baseball coach Vincent Abene said about his players, adding, “and when it comes to Marisa, there’s always a special part in everyone’s heart for her.”

Marisa Tufaro, who would have been a sophomore this year at Edison High School, died last year at the age of 13 following complications from a heart transplant. Several of Marisa Tufaro’s former classmates participated in the Race to Outrun Hunger. As a student at James Monroe Elementary School, Marisa Tufaro collected nonperishable food items for the Hands of Hope Food Pantry. Thus, Saturday’s event had special meaning for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, whose mission of helping children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area coincides with that of the food pantry.

“Through the benevolence of others, our foundation, since its inception in July 2017, has been fortunate to donate nearly $50,000 to pediatric patients and other children in need,” said Cyndi Tufaro, Marisa’s mother and executive director of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation. “Community service is an integral part of our nonprofit’s mission, and you can’t put a price tag on what Matt and his players and Maria and her students did to help others. The support and sacrifice from Edison High School was inspiring and exemplary.”

Maria Fulham’s students were fully engaged in the community service project, which afforded  them a meaningful educational opportunity to apply their public speaking and writing skills. They met with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s leadership to brainstorm ways in which they could help and followed up with an email detailing their progress before the event. The ESL students visited more than a dozen classrooms at Edison High School to promote the Race to Outrun Hunger, asking classmates to participate in the event or donate nonperishable goods. Maria Fulham’s students provided Edison High School principal Charlie Ross with a script about the event to read during morning announcements, created Race to Outrun Hunger flyers for teachers to display in classrooms, decorated boxes to collect nonperishable food donations, promoted the event on social media and encouraged students to tell their friends to participate.

“Having children that graduated from Edison High School, I was thrilled to see the Edison students there on Saturday,” said Jackie Goedesky, president and founder of the Hands of Hope Food Pantry. “When a student comes to volunteer for something for the food pantry, it makes them aware of how important it is to be part of a community and to give to others. It’s also a blessing to the people that come to the food pantry that need the food.”

Goedesky said more than 50 percent of the families who frequent the food pantry are Edison residents, some of whose children attend Edison Township schools.

“We’re always thinking that (hunger) is not in our neighborhood, but it might be your next-door neighbor,” Goedesky said. “You just never know what happens behind closed doors.”

Senator Patrick J. Diegnan, who is a member of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and Middlesex County Freeholder Deputy Director Charles Tomaro, who is a member of the Hands of Hope Food Pantry’s Board of Directors, both addressed the Edison students before the Race to Outrun Hunger.

“Being here today, you are helping (The Marisa Tufaro Foundation) carry out their goal, doing a good deed and improving the lives of others,” Diegnan said. “I can’t say how much it affects my heart.”

All of Edison’s participants were clad in red and gold T-shirts – reflecting the high school’s official colors – which bore The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s logo on the front. The words “The Edison Eagles fly with an angel to support The Marisa Tufaro Foundation” were inscribed on the back of the T-shirts beneath the school’s logo, which was flanked by angel’s wings and topped with a halo.

Bell Pharmacy served as The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s official sponsor for the event and provided the T-shirts free of charge to the nonprofit’s team of racers and walkers.

Marisa required multiple medications daily since birth, and after her heart transplant was taking more than two dozen different prescriptions daily. The pharmacists at Bell Pharmacy were beyond accommodating in fulfilling Marisa’s needs, and were an integral part of Marisa’s healthcare throughout her life.

Edison assistant football coaches Matt McGuigan and Chris Adams both placed in the 5K race, as did Christina Osiadacz, a classmate and friend of Marisa Tufaro at James Monroe and Herbert Hoover Elementary School who won her age group.

Evelyn Hook, a secretary at James Monroe Elementary School, who began her tenure there when Marisa enrolled as a kindergartner, also placed first in her age group.

The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s leadership delivered all of the collected nonperishable food items, along with a monetary donation, to the Hands of Hope Food Pantry on Tuesday morning.