The Marisa Tufaro Foundation invites you to become a member of our nonprofit’s team of walkers and runners who will participate for a second consecutive year in the Race to Outrun Hunger.
WHEN: Saturday, October 13th at 9 a.m.
WHERE: Roosevelt Park, 151 Parsonage Road, Edison, New Jersey, 08837.
WHAT: A 5K which participants can WALK or RUN conducted on a U.S. Track and Field certified course, featuring slight rolling hills in a scenic 217-acre park.
WHY: The event benefits Hands of Hope, an Edison-based nonprofit and community partner of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation that is committed to providing an efficient and centralized system for distributing food to alleviate hunger in the Middlesex County area. The event also fulfills our foundation’s community service mission and provides a wonderful opportunity for supporters of our nonprofit to convene and celebrate Marisa’s life – the way she would want – by helping others.
$25 REGISTRATION FEE : The fee covers registration and the cost of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation T-shirt we respectfully ask all team members to wear on the day of the event.
HOW TO REGISTER: Please complete THIS SIMPLE FORM before October 1st, 2018.
MEETING PLACE: Members of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s team of racers and walkers are asked to convene anytime between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. under a tent adjacent to the Lakeview School – located across from the lake at Roosevelt Park – where they will receive their T-shirt and 5K instructions.
MARISA’S HANDS OF HOPE CONNECTION: As a student, Marisa joined her classmates, as well as the faculty and staff at James Monroe Elementary School, in collecting nonperishable food items to donate to Hands of Hope, whose mission of helping children in need and their families coincides with that of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation. Several of Marisa’s former teachers walked with our foundation team last year.
OUR TEAM’S 2017 IMPACT: Race director Stephen Dennis said The Marisa Tufaro Foundation team’s participation in last year’s event helped make it “the most successful we’ve had in terms of number of participants and awareness in the community.”
DID YOU KNOW: A generous benefactor has offered to cover the registration fees for a capped number of Edison High School and Chamberlain University College of Nursing Students who will join our team for the Race to Outrun Hunger for a second consecutive year. Those students are required to fill out a registration form different from that which appears above. Those forms will be made available to the students at their respective schools.
2017 MEDAL WINNERS: Several members of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s team claimed first-place medals, including New York Presbyterian nurse Gabriella Sehne, who won her women’s age group, Edison assistant football coach Matt McGuigan, who won his men’s age group, and Rich Whalen Sr., who placed first among males 61 and over. Other medal winners from the foundation’s team included Debby Stab, Scott Stab, Caroline Whalen, Maria Sehne and John Meskill.
QUOTABLE: “The money raised from The Race to Outrun Hunger enables us to purchase the extra food that families can no longer afford to buy for themselves,” Jackie Goedesky, president and founder of Hands of Hope, previously told the Home News Tribune. “We have many success stories. People receive food to carry them through bad times and then when they are back on their feet they come to ‘pay it forward’ by donating to our food pantry and, at times, to volunteer. Our donors are able to visually see where their money goes and they often comment that they are always shocked by the long lines of people on the days we are open and it encourages them to continue to donate to us.”
MARISA’S HEROES: Several Cardiac Intensive Care Unit nurses from New York Presbyterian’s Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital who cared for Marisa joined our team for last year’s Race to Outrun Hunger, as did Dr. Joseph Gaffney, chief of pediatric cardiology at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, who cared for Marisa her entire life. The nurses from New York Presbyterian worked relentlessly around the clock for Marisa, who was hospitalized for 161 of her final 214 days. The staff became Marisa’s second family. The compassion and expertise of the nurses, many of who attended Marisa’s wake and funeral, left an indelible impression on the Tufaros, who hold the New York Presbyterian nursing staff in the highest regard.
OTHERS WHO SUPPORT HANDS OF HOPE: The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Edison Township Council, Edison P.B.A., Edison Senior Firefighters, Edison Public Schools, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA are among those who also support Hands of Hope.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Click HERE to read a story about our foundation team’s participation in last year’s event.