PRD Baseball Academy goes to bat for our nonprofit with fundraiser

PRD Baseball Academy has adopted The Marisa Tufaro Foundation as a beneficiary of its first annual Holiday Clinic and Fundraiser, from which all proceeds will be equally split between our nonprofit and academy families.

The two-hour clinic for players age 7 through 12 and 13-and-older, which runs from 10 a.m. until noon, costs $40 per player and will be held Dec. 28 at the Jersey Shore Sports Center in Ocean.

Located in Tinton Falls, PRD provides baseball-specific group and private training for players from Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties.

The baseball academy is also home to club tournament teams from ages 9-and-under through 16-and-under.

According to former Monroe High School and current Ranney School head baseball coach Pat Geroni, who heads PRD, one lead parent from each of the academy’s age groups collaborated to launch a fundraising campaign with a goal of donating money to worthy causes while simultaneously offsetting costs families incur during the summer for travel to national tournaments.

“We will have a variety of different events (in the coming months) targeted to accomplishing these goals and we hope to be able to make a difference in New Jersey communities,” said Geroni, whose academy designated our nonprofit as the charity for its initial fundraiser.

Established just over two years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has already made a profound impact, donating more than $100,000 and spearheading multiple community initiatives to fulfill its mission of helping pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area. Our nonprofit has also donated thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter jackets, baby supplies and other items upon which we have placed no monetary value. In addition, the foundation awards college scholarship dollars to exceptional high school students who advance its mission, and provides elementary and middle school students with scholarships to attend a weeklong summer camp at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum.

More than a dozen of the high school-age players who currently compete for PRD are from Middlesex County towns including Colonia, Monroe, South River, Spotswood and Woodbridge.

Members of PRD’s training and coaching staff also hail from Middlesex County including Monroe High School graduates Nick Dini and Marc Magliaro.

Dini made his Major League debut with the Kansas City Royals earlier this year and Magliaro recently retired from professional baseball after reaching the Double A level with the Colorado Rockies organization.

Magliaro will be working the Holiday Clinic along with former MLB pitcher Jerry Vasto, former Midwest League All-Star Shawn McCorkle and other trainers and coaches from the academy.

McCorkle’s wife, Michelle, is part of the driving force behind Metuchen High School’s annual Proving Ground Team Building Challenge and Mud Run, which has served as a fundraiser for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation each of the past three years.

Geroni said PRD is passionate about helping players grow on the field, in the classroom and as individuals in life. The fundraising campaign affords PRD players an opportunity to give back to the community and help others.

The Dec. 28 event will be age-bracketed for participation in hitting and defensive clinics, which will be conducted in separate sections of Jersey Sports Center’s spacious 20,000-plus square foot facility.

Various games and competitions with a baseball twist will immediately follow the clinic from noon until 1 p.m. Games may include pitching target practice, velocity readings, knocking down objects with a baseball, hitting competitions, a home run derby and more. Those who participate in the games, which are open to everyone, are not obligated, but can donate any amount they wish to the cause.

For more information, please text or call 201-304-3004. To register, visit the PRD website.

Marisa Tufaro, 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, she 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 that riddled her brain and body. Marisa succumbed to her illness on Jan. 30, 2017. She was just 13 years old.

Following are some of the ways in which our nonprofit has made a profound impact on pediatric patients and other children in need.

·       Sponsored more than 60 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.

·       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 provider won’t cover certain medical 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 consecutive years 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.

·       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 the Saint Joseph High School football program to pack and donate more than 100 “Weekend Snack Bags” for pediatric patients’ families at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.

·       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.

·       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.

·       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.

·       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 13 summer art camp scholarships to Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum for Middlesex County elementary and middle school students.

·       Rewarded three high school students for their community service to children with college scholarships.

·       Provided a total of 14 college academic scholarships to Greater Middlesex Conference student-athletes whose classroom performance and extracurricular involvement reflects Marisa’s educational success and whose charitable endeavors align 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.

·       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.

·       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.

·       Provided James Monroe Elementary School students with food items to fill a hundred “Weekend Snack Bags” for pediatric patients’ families.

·       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.

·       Paid forward the kindness of the Saint Joseph High School Campus Ministry with a generous donation to the Hands of Hope Food Pantry.

·       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.