About two dozen Saint Joseph students, through the high school’s campus ministry, sacrificed their activity time during last week’s Community Day to fill more than a hundred weekend snack bags for our nonprofit to distribute to families of pediatric patients at PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.
The community service project, which Tracey Coudriet, the high school’s director of campus ministry, orchestrated in conjunction with students and their families, was conducted in honor of our foundation’s namesake.
Students and their families generously donated all of the items contained in the bags, which our foundation’s leadership delivered to the hospital earlier this week.
According to Children’s Specialized Hospital’s Foundation, “Often times, one of the biggest burdens for families while their child is living at our New Brunswick inpatient hospital is feeding themselves during their child’s stay. Families often forget about themselves as they are so concerned with their child’s health, and limited funds really narrow their options. By providing these weekend snack bags, you are ensuring each family who stays with us has one less thing to worry about during their child’s stay.”
The school community collected so much food that The Marisa Tufaro Foundation delivered the significant surplus to the Hands of Hope Food Pantry, an Edison-based nonprofit committed to providing an efficient and centralized system for distributing food to alleviate hunger in the Middlesex County area.
In addition, our foundation’s leadership made a generous monetary donation in honor of Saint Joseph High School to Hands of Hope.
Our nonprofit’s namesake, Marisa Tufaro, is the daughter of longtime Home News Tribune sports writer Greg Tufaro, a 1985 graduate of Saint Joseph High School, and of Cyndi Tufaro, principal at James Monroe Elementary School in Edison.
The Saint Joseph school community has been among The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s biggest supporters.
Since its inception just over two years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has donated more than $100,000 while fulfilling 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, winter jackets, baby supplies and other items upon which we have placed no monetary value.
Each weekend snack bag contained a package of Bumble Bee tuna salad and crackers, a microwavable container of Kraft macaroni and cheese, a microwavable container of Chef Boyardee pasta, a microwavable cup of Nissin chicken flavor ramen noodle soup, a Nature Valley protein bar, a bottle of Poland Spring water, a container of Apple & Eve juice, a container of Dole mixed fruit, Goldfish crackers, Handi-Snacks Ritz Crackers ‘N Cheese Dip, a package of Pop Secret microwavable popcorn, a cup of Jiff peanut butter, a package of Blue Diamond almonds, a package of Nabisco Belvita cookies, a package of microwavable Quaker oatmeal, and several other snacks.
The students, faculty and school administrators who packed the weekend snack bags, including principal Anne Rivera, provided utensils, wrapping each set in a napkin and placing it in a Ziploc baggie along with accompanying packets of Bigelow tea and Swiss Miss hot chocolate.
The food items were carefully placed inside reusable cloth bags bearing a logo that united Saint Joseph High School with our foundation. “THE FALCON FLOCK FLIES WITH AN ANGEL TO SUPPORT THE MARISA TUFARO FOUNDATION,” was inscribed beneath the logo. Tethered to the handle of all the bags was a variety of inspirational messages Saint Joseph students selected with love and care for the pediatric patients.
Students and faculty members received specially designed commemorative T-shirts, which they wore while participating in the community service project.
Our nonprofit has a longstanding partnership with Children’s Specialized Hospital, where we have hosted a boardwalk-themed “Family Fun Night” each of the past two summers.
In addition, our nonprofit partnered with Teamwork Unlimited Foundation to provide medical alert bracelets for Children’s Specialized Hospital’s pediatric patients.
Children’s Specialized Hospital recently featured our nonprofit in its annual report.
Marisa, 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 following a valiant battle on Jan. 30, 2017. She was just 13 years old.
Marisa received outstanding care as an outpatient from Children’s Specialized Hospital, benefiting most recently from physical therapy following her July 2016 heart transplant.
Children’s Specialized Hospital, which annually serves more than 34,000 children statewide at 12 different locations throughout New Jersey, is the nation’s leading provider of inpatient and outpatient care for children from birth to 21 years of age facing special health challenges ranging from chronic illnesses and complex physical disabilities, such as brain and spinal cord injuries, to developmental and behavioral issues such as autism and mental health.
PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick serves approximately 550 pediatric patients annually.
Some of the ways our nonprofit has made an impact are detailed below:
- Sponsored more than 60 student-athletes from South Brunswick High School, who are donating their time and youthful energy to participate in a charity kickball tournament benefiting an inspirational township 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 St. 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 pediatric 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 academic 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 Bishop Ahr 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.
- 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.