For the third consecutive year, the Edison Township Education Association has named The Marisa Tufaro Foundation as a beneficiary of its ninth annual charity volleyball tournament, which will be held Feb. 20 at J.P. Stevens High School.
The ETEA will equally divide all proceeds from the event among three local charitable organizations. The district-wide tournament features teams comprised of faculty members from every school in the township. Marisa’s mother, Cyndi, who is in her first year as the principal at James Monroe Elementary School, will play in this year’s event as a member of James Monroe’s team.
Less than one month following Marisa’s untimely passing in 2017, the team participating in the seventh annual ETEA charity volleyball tournament from James Monroe, which Marisa attended for six years, honored Marisa by wearing specially designed purple T-shirts bearing her initials in white lettering and an angel’s wings of the same color emblazoned above the left breast.
The love Marisa had for the faculty, staff and students of James Monroe was boundless and impossible to quantify in words. The role outstanding educators at James Monroe and Herbert Hoover Middle School played in Marisa’s complete development can never be overstated.
At James Monroe, Marisa was an honor roll student, served as student council vice president, participated in annual spring musicals, wrote for the school newspaper, sang in the school chorus, played percussion in the school orchestra and was a member of various clubs.
Established less than 18 months ago to help pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has already made a profound impact, donating more than $60,000 and spearheading multiple community initiatives, as well as awarding college scholarship dollars to exceptional high school students who advance the nonprofit’s mission.
Marisa, who would have been a sophomore this year at Edison High School, was born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, a complex cardiac defect which required six open-heart surgeries. She developed two life-threatening conditions that necessitated a heart transplant. The transplant was supposed to extend her life, but tragically cut it short when a postoperative complication developed into a rare form of blood cancer to which Marisa succumbed on January 30, 2017. Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and maintaining hundreds of doctor’s appointments, Marisa lived a vibrant life that inspired.
In 2014, Marisa wrote a story for the school newspaper about James Monroe’s participation in the ETEA charity volleyball tournament. Following is her dispatch, which she wrote as a 10-year-old fifth-grader.
Different teams were bustling about trying to keep the volleyball in the air. Aromas of snacks filled the gym, while people went wild to cheer for their school.
At the annual volleyball tournament on February 20th at J.P Stevens High School, James Monroe School competed to raise money for cancer. Other schools competed for a charity of their choice. $7,500 was raised total for all the teams.
Mrs. Westcott, Mr. Fernandez, Mrs. Lamont, Mrs. Shepard, Mrs. Hyun, Mrs. Duncan, Mrs. Hook, and Mrs. Brian made up James Monroe’s team. Mr. Fernandez was their coach.
Four games were played at one time. It was a process of elimination. The teams that lost were disqualified while the winners kept playing. James Monroe didn’t win the whole tournament, Woodbrook Elementary School did. But James Monroe did win a game against Herbert Hoover Middle School. Elementary school through high school teams could compete. Only teachers could compete.
Even though James Monroe didn’t win the tournament, they sure felt like they did because they helped people in need.
