The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, which has benefited from the benevolence of St. Thomas Aquinas High School, is honored to be able to pay forward that generosity with support for one of the school-community’s outstanding fundraisers.
Our nonprofit recently made a donation to the Edison-based parochial school’s 22nd annual STA/AHR STAR spaghetti dinner, whose beneficiaries this year are 8-year-old Elijah Patino of Woodbridge, born with a rare autoimmune disease, and 8-year-old Andrew Yarus of Milltown, born with a rare chromosome deletion.
The event will be held Oct. 3 from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. For information or to purchase tickets – which cost $10 for adults, $7 for students and $4 for children under 12 – please call (732) 549-1108, Ext. 648 or complete a reservation form.
Since its inception, the STA/AHR STAR program has annually adopted two children who are chronically or terminally ill, providing the children and their families with financial and spiritual support, an endeavor that aligns with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s mission of helping children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
According to TapIntoEdison, Yarus has also been diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis, “a rare inflammatory disease that makes eating extremely difficult.” He “also faces neurological issues.”
Patino’s rare autoimmune disorder, according to TapIntoEdison, “makes his body’s white blood cells turn on his organs. Both boys and their families have faced many challenges during their young lives.”
The Today show featured Patino and his family during a heart-touching 10-minute segment that aired last year.
The St. Thomas Aquinas school-community’s support of Yarus and Patino will not end with the spaghetti dinner.
According to TapIntoEdison, from Halloween cards and an edible arrangement on Thanksgiving to holiday gifts, “the kids and their families (will) feel the love and support from the school and its students.” Fundraisers will continue for the boys throughout the academic year, at the end of which the children and their families will receive a photo memory book.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation is forever indebted to the St. Thomas Aquinas students, their parents and coaches who have supported our nonprofit, positioning us to donate to the high school’s 22nd annual spaghetti dinner and to help others in the greater Middlesex County area.
Established on July 30, 2017, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has already provided more than $100,000 of assistance to pediatric patients and children in need.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, which makes community service an integral part of its mission, has also spearheaded multiple community initiatives, resulting in the collection of thousands of toys, nonperishable food, winter coats, baby supplies and other items for donation upon which the nonprofit has placed no monetary value.
The foundation has awarded 17 college academic scholarships in Marisa’s name to high school seniors, including two from St. Thomas Aquinas, and an additional 13 scholarships for middle school and elementary school students to attend a weeklong summer art camp at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum.
Multiple coaches and parents of student-athletes from St. Thomas Aquinas have donated to our nonprofit.
Members of St. Thomas Aquinas’ baseball team wore specially designed wristbands bearing Marisa’s initials during the 2017 campaign. Members of the high school’s wrestling squad sported specially designed T-shirts honoring Marisa during the 2018 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament. St. Thomas Aquinas’ boys basketball players, girls basketball players, baseball players, swimmers and bowlers competed in league-wide all-star games or tournaments each of the past three years that benefited our nonprofit.
Some former student-athletes from the high school, including 2017 graduate Andrew Brazicki, who is now a star running back at Bentley University in Massachusetts, continue to honor Marisa, wearing one of our foundation’s wristbands on game days. Brazicki was instrumental in spearheading a gift card drive for pediatric patients in Marisa’s loving memory during a Bentley University home football contest two years ago.
The STA/Ahr Star program, according to a press release the school previously shared with MyCentralJersey.com, is one of, if not the most popular, service activities involving the high school’s students and faculty.
The 32-year-old program transformed into an annual spaghetti dinner – held the first Thursday each October – in 1997 as a fundraiser for then senior Sean Batiste, who was diagnosed months earlier on the day of his junior prom with leukemia.
The spaghetti dinner involves yearlong preparation, the volunteerism of approximately a quarter of the student body and about 60 teachers and administrators. Hundreds of people attend the event annually.
“Members of the local community also (get) involved, with the food being cooked by volunteers from the Woodbridge Knights of Columbus, who help at the dinner every year,” the aforementioned press release stated. “In addition, past and present members of (the school-community) donated their services to the dinner.
“Donations were so great (in past years) that the surplus spaghetti was donated to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, where many (St. Thomas Aquinas) students volunteer their time.”
Diocese of Metuchen Bishop James Checchio, who has attended spaghetti dinners in the past, called the evening a “wonderful event that shows the true heart of this community,” according to St. Thomas Aquinas’ press release.
“It’s so inspiring,” Checchio said, “to see young people as well as adults participating for the (STA/AHR) STAR families.”
St. Thomas Aquinas is a coeducational college preparatory school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen. The school provides an atmosphere in which each individual’s God-given abilities are nurtured and developed. Every student is encouraged to strive for spiritual, academic, social, creative and athletic excellence through the interaction of a caring community. With Christ as its model, the St. Thomas Aquinas community fosters a uniquely Christian environment. Each individual can grow in self-esteem, in social and moral responsibility and in those values needed to face the challenges of tomorrow’s world.