The Saint Joseph High School ice hockey program, which has a longstanding relationship with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, continued its support of the nonprofit through a recent fundraiser.
During last week’s game against Notre Dame, the Falcons collected $1,000 for the foundation, whose mission is to assist pediatric patients and other children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
For more than a decade, the Saint Joseph ice hockey program has fundraised annually, generating thousands of dollars for worthy causes.
“We are fortunate here that we go to St. Joe’s and are able to help other people that are in the area that may be in need,” said Saint Joseph ice hockey coach Ryan Carter, a member of the high school’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
“It’s about teaching life lessons to the kids that we coach. This shows you’re not just a student-athlete at St. Joe’s, you are part of a larger community, and in that global community we have to help each other. As you graduate and grow older, you need to remember the community that you are a part of and give back to it.”
Past beneficiaries of the ice hockey program’s fundraising efforts include Kiddie Keep Well Camp, the Woodbridge Township School District P.A.C.E program, Wounded Warrior Project, Super Storm Sandy Relief Fund, the Woodbridge Have a Heart Food Bank, Hockey Fights Cancer, Hockey in Newark, the Valerie Fund, NJ Dare Devils Hockey, Jesse Hartnett Hero Fund, Cancer Call Out, the Glioblastoma Foundation, inspirational former Monroe High School ice hockey player Mike Nichols, a sled hockey player living with spina bifida, and a Saint Joseph student diagnosed with cancer.
“It’s a complete buy in,” Carter said of his program’s commitment to helping charities such as The Marisa Tufaro Foundation. “It’s not something we just think about doing every year. It’s an expectation that it will be done for a local charity.”
Saint Joseph has been among The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s biggest supporters. Other sports programs from the high school, including its basketball, bowling, swimming, football, and baseball teams, have supported the nonprofit.
- Baseball players from St. Joseph joined their peers across the conference in wearing commemorative purple wristbands bearing Marisa’s initials in the months after her passing.
- Basketball and baseball players from the school have competed in all-star games benefiting the foundation.
- The bowling team twice participated in the Marisa Tufaro Classic and the swimming team took part in an annual swim-a-thon, with money raised from both events benefiting the nonprofit.
- The football program honored the memory of Marisa and conducted a fundraiser for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation during home games in consecutive seasons. In addition to donating the gate from those contests, Saint Joseph also donated all proceeds from the sale of specially designed commemorative T-shirts.
- About two dozen Saint Joseph students, through the high school’s campus ministry, sacrificed their activity time during a Community Day to fill more than a hundred weekend snack bags for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation to distribute to families of pediatric patients at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick. Members of the football program participated in a similar community service project.
- Student-athletes from the school also participated in the Marisa Tufaro Bowl, an intramural flag football championship game that raised money for the foundation.
“They are all engaged and involved,” Saint Joseph High School President John Nolan Jr. said of his entire school-community.
“Certainly, on the hockey side of things, they are just terrific examples of what it means to give back. But it’s ingrained in the whole St. Joe’s community to help others. I’m so proud of everything that our coaches do, that our students and their families do. We are there to certainly help those in need and help organizations looking for assistance.”
Marisa’s parents, Cyndi and Greg, established The Marisa Tufaro Foundation to keep alive their daughter’s indomitable spirit and ensure her legacy could be one of helping others.
Since its inception four and a half years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has already made a profound impact, donating more than $235,000 and spearheading multiple community initiatives to fulfill its mission. The nonprofit has donated thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter jackets, baby supplies and other items upon which it has placed no monetary value. The foundation has also awarded 31 college academic scholarships in Marisa’s name to high school seniors.
Born with a complex cardiac defect, Marisa survived six open-heart surgeries and a heart transplant before succumbing in 2017 at the age of 13 to a rare form of cancer.
Two days after Marisa’s untimely passing, the Saint Joseph ice hockey team held a moment of silence in her honor before the puck was dropped for a regular-season game.
The home and visiting teams lined up on their respective blue lines with players from both sides bowing their heads prior to the National Anthem in a show of solidarity and respect for Marisa, whose father was a sportswriter with a longstanding relationship with Coach Carter that dated back to the veteran mentor’s scholastic playing days roughly three decades ago.
Carter and his son, Ty, who was a star player with the Falcons at the time, attended Marisa’s wake and brought a sympathy card that every member of the 2016-17 team signed, with each player penning his jersey number beneath his name.
Later in that 2016-17 season, Cyndi and Greg made a postgame visit to the St. Joseph locker room to thank the players and present them with the stick Marisa used while playing hockey with her father inside the house.
The stick happened to have a black shaft and green blade, reflecting the school colors of Saint Joseph, from which Greg graduated in 1985.
Days later, moments before Saint Joseph was set to take the ice in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament championship, Coach Carter sent a pregame text message to Greg that read: “Marisa is with us.”
A photo of Marisa’s hockey stick resting against the bench alongside a helmet with a white decal bearing the initials “MRT” in black letters accompanied the text message.
After St. Joseph won the game and the locker room emptied, Carter placed Marisa’s hockey stick, butt end first with the blade facing up, inside the conference championship cup, named after legendary coach Pete Kolodney, a former St. Joseph mentor who coached Carter and is now his assistant.
Carter snapped a picture and tweeted it from the St. Joseph ice hockey team’s official Twitter account with the words: “In memory of Marisa Rose Tufaro. Our good luck charm!”
Nearly five years later, it’s the Saint Joseph ice hockey program, through its incredible fundraising efforts, bringing good fortune to children in need through the nonprofit bearing Marisa’s name.
Following are some of the ways The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has assisted pediatric patients and children in need.
Partnered with Creature Comfort Pet Therapy, a highly respected Morristown-based nonprofit, to provide fully funded grants to make visits from certified therapy dogs available to schools, libraries, and other facilities serving children.
In honor of Edison High School’s graduating Class of 2021, of which Marisa would have been a part, our nonprofit made 10 separate donations of $2,021 – totaling $20,210 – to organizations who share The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s mission of helping Middlesex County children in need.
Donated $8,000 through the first annual Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Coaches Association charity golf outing, of which our nonprofit was the beneficiary, to Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital’s Child Life Program.
Partnered with the Give-Back Initiative to donate gift cards valued at $100 each to 44 Edison Township families in need, helping them purchase food, necessities and presents during the holiday season.
Provided Thanksgiving Day dinners to patients and their families at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.
As a way of giving back to the Greater Middlesex Conference, which has been among our nonprofit’s biggest supporters, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation jump-started the league’s fundraising effort to feed county families during the coronavirus pandemic with a $2,500 donation to the Middlesex County Food Organization and Outreach Distribution Services.
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.
Partnered with the Colonia High School football team to tackle a Super Bowl-themed community service project that benefited pediatric patients and their families at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.
Donated to Women Aware’s PALS Program, which offers counseling for children (ages 3-12) and supportive services including individual and group creative arts therapy counseling sessions to families who have been victimized by domestic violence and abuse.
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.
Partnered with Woodbridge High School through its “Pictures with Santa” event to make an $1,800 financial and gift card donation to Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital in support of the hospital’s virtual toy drive.
Donated a total of $3,000 to PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital and the Lakeview School in honor of the football players and cheerleaders who would have participated in the 27th annual Middlesex-Union County All-Star Game, a charity event which the coronavirus pandemic canceled.
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 the Give-Back Initiative to donate $4,000 to Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital in New Brunswick for the purchase of iPads, as well as age and developmentally appropriate toys and games for pediatric patients.
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.
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 summer art camp scholarships to Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum for 13 Middlesex County elementary and middle school students.
Provided college scholarships to 31 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.
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 during the holiday season.
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 annual Ahr Star spaghetti dinner, whose beneficiaries included a 9-year-old boy from Middlesex County with multiple disabilities.
Donated $3,000 to RWJBarnabas Health’s children’s hospitals, paying forward the kindness of football players and coaches who support our nonprofit and in honor of their ability to navigate a pandemic-impacted season.
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.
Made a donation in recognition of Piscataway’s Conackamack Middle School, which honored Marisa during its 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.
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 during the holiday season.
In honor of the players and coaches who participated in the Soccer for a Cause Charity Festival, our nonprofit made a $1,000 donation to REPLENISH, a regional food bank serving Middlesex County residents including an estimated 30,000 children.
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.