Christine Scully running the 2014 Cape Cod Marathon

This Boston Marathon fundraiser is especially meaningful to Christine, as much like John Mastronardi, Christine has devoted her professional career to working with special education students.  She currently works for The Crossroads School in Marlborough, MA.  The Crossroads School provides exclusive services to students with various special education needs.

Christine has been an avid runner and yoga enthusiast for many years.  She has competed in a total of four half marathons, including the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) Half Marathon in 2011.  Christine worked her way up to her first full marathon in 2014, when she completed the Cape Cod Marathon in a very respectable 4 hours and 22 minutes.

Christine has been training diligently over the last several months and has ambitions to lower her previous marathon time on the Hopkinton to Boston course.  Christine’s training regimen has included numerous long runs throughout the Boston area, and she plans to complete several more training runs throughout the Newton Hills and some of the other challenging areas along the route.  Christine has benefited from training with good friend, and running partner, Laura Bariso, who will also be running with her in this year’s Boston Marathon.

Christine Scully running the South Shore 1/2 Marathon

The 2018 Boston Marathon will be especially meaningful to Christine, as she is fundraising for a cause near and dear to the Mastronardi family.  Monetary support for Christine’s efforts will fund the two John Mastronardi Memorial Fund Scholarships presented to Revere High School graduates in the Spring of 2018.  The scholarships will be awarded to two students who plan to follow in the footsteps of both Christine and John, by entering the field of special education.

Additionally, the prestigious Boston Marathon has been high on Christine’s bucket list, since she first attended the historic Patriot’s Day race as a spectator, while a student at Northeastern.  Christine is eagerly looking forward to seeing many of her close friends and family members along the marathon route.

Along with enthusiastic fundraising through word of mouth and social media, Christine plans to host fundraising events locally at Jake and Joe’s in Woburn, in early March, as well as in her home town of Bethpage, NY at B.K. Sweeny’s Tavern on March 11th.

As always, the Mastronardi Family wishes Christine lots of luck and strong westerly winds on Marathon Monday!

DeNuzzio’s long distance running career also includes two half-marathons, the Boston Athletic Association Half, which she ran in October of 2016 and the Run to Remember, which she ran last May.

Amy DeNuzzio (left) after the 2016 Cape Cod Marathon

While having never officially run the 26.2 mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston, DeNuzzio has made the trip many times.  For the past five years, she has been a Boston Marathon volunteer, working at the finish line, in the drug testing area and for the past several years has been a part of the team driving one of the lead vehicles along the course.  “I have always dreamed of running the Boston Marathon, and truly never thought it would be possible,” DeNuzzio commented.

DeNuzzio is a 2014 graduate of Emmanuel College, where she was a three-sport collegiate athlete, competing in Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field for the Saints.  While at Emmanuel, DeNuzzio ran among the top seven for the Saints Cross Country Team and advanced to the NCAA Division III Regionals three out of four years.  As a junior, she finished 1^st for Emmanuel in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Cross Country Championship.  Prior to her collegiate career, while living in Windham, New Hampshire, DeNuzzio ran Cross Country for Salem High School in Salem, NH.

DeNuzzio running for Emmanuel College

DeNuzzio’s love for running began at an early age.  “I went on my first run with my father in 2006 to better my health.  I went from running/walking (mostly walking) a couple miles with my father, to trying out for my high school team as a sophomore and running varsity, to competing at the collegiate level.  My dad always pushed me to do my best and I took it to another level because I loved how running made me feel physically and emotionally.”

“I met my Emmanuel College Cross Country and Track & Field family in 2010, and became a familiar face in the athletic training room, as I was very good at finding ways to develop different sports injuries.” However, despite suffering an array of injuries over the years, DeNuzzio has truly developed a passion for running.  “Running has become an irreplaceable part of me.  My coaches at Emmanuel (Tony DaRocha and Alice Kramer) supported me every step of the way and helped me grow as an athlete and a person.”

After graduating from Emmanuel, DeNuzzio earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Boston College in 2016.  She currently resides in Brighton and is employed as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), working with adolescents on mental health residential units in Massachusetts.  “I am SO thankful for this opportunity and to raise awareness and money for The John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship Fund.  I’m also thankful for those who choose to enter the field of Special Education.”

The Mastronardi Family wishes Amy lots of luck and strong winds from the west on Marathon Monday!

Thank you to the following people for donating to Amy’s marathon run:

• Carol Mastronardi
• Alexis, Gerry & Jaelyn Walsh
• Michael Mastronardi
• Irene & Bob Kimball
• James Ivers
• Fred DeNuzzio
• Michelle Bojarsky
• Mimi Flanagan
• Laura Cunningham
• Molly Whittemore
• Shirley Butcher
• Danielle Cleasby
• Linda Christian
• Natasha Zis
• Paul Daley
• Rebecca Levine
• Lori & Tom Simmons
• Pam Andren
• Danielle Martin
• Danny Brown
• Joseph Scire
• Taso Souliotis
• Elizabeth Kozlowski
• Meri Wells
• John Gennaco
• Nick Tzavalas
• Tani Lawrence
• Diane Gigliuzza
• Julie Comart
• Maureen Roach
• Emily Shields
• Sharis Barkhordarian
• John Ciccolo
• Robert Lemire
• Konstantina Rentumis
• Roberta LeBlanc
• Peter Jespersen
• Eliana Builes
• Nicholas Tzavalas
• Mark Tobin
• Baseball Tavern Fundraiser on March 18th
• Alison & Bobby Holmes
• Morgan Blumenfeld
• Antoinette and Rich Russell
• Dick Vitale
• The Hill School – Revere, Mass.
• Ed Moccia
• Elisa LaPlante
• Cindy LaPointe
• Denise Ford

The 2016 scholarship recipients were informed of their awards on June 2nd and were then presented with their scholarships on June 8th by the John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship Committee.  The informal ceremony took place in the library of the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, one of the schools were the late John Mastronardi taught

2016 Scholarship Winners

Special Education.  Buonopane and Guadagno were selected to received the JM Memorial Scholarships through the assistance of the Revere High School Guidance Office.

With his 2016 scholarship, Anthony Buonopane will attend Wheelock College in the Fall of 2016 and plans to double-major in Special Education and Political Science.  In high school, Anthony volunteered in the Challenger’s League Basketball program for students with special needs and was nominated for the Jewish War Veteran’s Scholarship.  Anthony is also a recipient of the Wheelock College Passion for Action Scholarship

With her 2016 JM Memorial Scholarship, Courtney Guadagno will attend Bridgewater State University this Fall and plans to major in Education and English.  At Revere High, Courtney was involved in the Yearbook, was a member of the National Honor Society, was Co-Director of the PAL’s Mentoring Program and was involved in the Outdoor Club.  Courtney has been awarded the Boston College Book Award and the John & Abigail Adams MCAS Scholarship.

Buonopane and Guadagno participated in the 22nd Annual JM Scholarship presentation and were the 27th and 28th recipients of the John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship.  These scholarships have been awarded every year since John’s death in 1995.

The John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship Committee wishes the best of luck to Anthony and Courtney as they pursue their careers in the field of Education!!

Meri, who currently resides in Malden, grew up in Woburn, graduating from Woburn High School in 2007 and Northeastern in 2012.  She now works in the Talent Acquisition Department as a recruiter for PAREXEL, a clinical research organization.

Meri’s love for running began on Cape Cod, where she spent the summers with her family.  “I grew up watching my mother and aunt run the Falmouth Road Race, so it was always a goal of mine to run it one day. About 8 years ago, I ran the Falmouth Road Race for the first time and have done it every year since!”

After mastering the seven-mile Falmouth course, it was only a matter of time before Meri got the urge to push herself to run further.  In 2012, following her college graduation, Meri got serious about running and signed up for her first half marathon, the Boston Athletic Association Half.  Since 2012, she has gone on to run six half marathons and then doubled up to conquer the New York City Marathon in 2014, her first 26-mile trek.

The Patriot’s Day race will mark Meri’s first time running Boston and she is very excited for the opportunity.  “After completing the NYC marathon, there was a huge part of me that couldn’t help but think about how much more it would mean to finish 26.2 in my favorite city.  The Boston Marathon has always been a dream of mine ever since I watched my Aunt Mary run it when I was a little girl.”

In addition to extending her own family tradition in running Boston, Meri is also excited and honored to run Boston in memory of her good friend’s father, with all of the fundraising efforts from her run going toward the 2016 John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarships “It gives me pride to run for a great cause and to support the scholarship for someone who is pursuing a degree in education.”

With a mild winter thus far, Meri has been doing most of her marathon training on her own, but also running with the Shamrock Running Club at least once a week. Preparing herself for the often heart-breaking hills of Newton, Meri has added some cross training into her workouts and has been doing many of her training runs on hills … “trying to prepare for the worst,” she commented.

In terms of a goal for April 18^th, “I would love to finish Boston in under 4:30,” she said.  “That was my goal for New York, but the weather made that difficult with 30mph winds.  Regardless of the time, I just want to finish strong and be able to enjoy every minute!”

“I cannot wait to experience this day of running the prestigious Boston marathon route and seeing many friends and family along the way.”

The Mastronardi Family wishes Meri lots of luck and strong winds from the west on Marathon Monday!

2015 Scholarship Winners Vanessa Restrepo and Brittany Couch (pictured with John Mastronardi’s children: Michael and Alexis Mastronardi)

The two scholarship recipients were informed of their award on May 30th.  The 2015 scholarships were then presented in June by the memorial scholarship committee in the library of the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, one of the schools were the late John Mastronardi taught Special Education.

Couch, in addition to her success in the classroom at Revere High, was a member of the rock ensemble all four years. Brittany is attending Gordon College in the Fall and plans to pursue a degree in Special Education.

Restrepo was a member of the National Honor Society, the Student Council, the Culture Club, and the Future Teacher’s Club. Vanessa is attending Salem State University in the Fall and plans to pursue a degree in Education. 

The John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship Fund is now in its 21st year of existence.  The Fund awarded one scholarship annually from 1995 – 2010.  Then in 2011, the Fund began awarding two scholarships each June.  Brittany Couch and Vanessa Restrepo are the 25th and 26th winners of the Annual John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship.

Congratulations to Brittany and Vanessa!!!

After training through a historically New England brutal winter, Roach braved the wind and rain throughout the rigorous course on Patriot’s Day 2015 to cross the finish line on Boylston Street in an official time of 4:44.57.

Kerri Roach with her parents, Maureen and Bob Roach

A native of Revere, Massachusetts, Kerri graduated from Revere High School in 2009, even further connecting her to the spirit of the John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship Fund. “As a graduate of Revere High, I feel I have a connection to the recipients of the scholarship and understand how much a scholarship may mean to a student entering college. In addition, it is nice to be able to raise money for a charity in John’s name to help students achieve what he did in his career.”

Following Roach’s 26.2 mile run and her incredible fund-raising efforts, the John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship Fund presented two $3,500.00 scholarships to Revere High School graduates: Brittany Couch and Vanessa Restrepo.

The 39-year old, who had a goal of completing a marathon before her 40^th birthday this August, cruised through Seattle’s course in an impressive marathon debut time. Throughout the run, the words, “I’m going the distance in honor of John M.” could be read on the back of Grissom’s “Team in Training” singlet.

Grissom easily surpassed her “Team in Training” fundraising goal of $1,600.00.  Her sub-4:20 trek took her through the city streets of downtown Seattle, around Seward Park and out and over the Interstate 90 bridge to Mercer Island, with fabulous views of Lake Washington and Mount Rainier.  She then ran back through the I90 tunnel and past Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field, before touring the Seattle waterfront and finishing on Mercer Street, near the Seattle Center and at the foot of the Space Needle.

Grissom nears mile 20 in the Seattle Rock-n-Roll Marathon

The John Mastronardi Memorial Fund congratulates Kelly on her incredible accomplishment!!!

In 1995, the Mastronardi Memorial Fund Committee began awarding scholarships to deserving Revere High School graduates in memory of the late John Mastronardi.  Selected by the Revere High Guidance Department, the scholarship recipients are chosen based upon their academic success, as well as their desire to pursue a college degree in the field of Education of Special Education.  Further, Mastronardi scholarship recipients as selected because they best embody the spirit of John Mastronardi, a former Special Education teacher in the Revere Public Schools.

2014 Scholarship Recipients Brittani Napoli and Alexa Dacey

Alexa Dacey was a member of the Revere High School Student Council and played was a former varsity softball player for the RHS Patriots.  She gave up her athletic career to work at the Lincoln School in the after-school program.  Dacey will be attending Salem State University in the Fall of 2014 and plans to pursue a degree in Education.

Brittani Napoli, a member of the National Honor Society and the National Spanish Honor Society, was enrolled in advanced placement courses at Revere High. She completed a full-year teaching internship at the Lincoln School.  She is the Arts Editor for the Patriot Gazette. She sang in the Revere High Chorus and teaches dance at the Winthrop School of Performing Arts. Brittani plans to continue her love for the arts in college. She is also enrolled at Salem State University for the Fall of 2014 and will major in Elementary Education.

Over the past twenty years, the John Mastronardi Memorial Fund has awarded 24 scholarships to deserving individuals, distributing a total of over $50,000.00 in scholarship money.

Congratulations to Alexa and Brittani, the latest recipients of the John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship!

Mike crossed the finish line in an official time of 4:40.07

Mike reaching out to his fans in Kenmore Square

“Running in memory of my Dad was an awesome feeling. I had a ton of support from friends and family, many of whom could remember back to when it was my Dad that everyone was going to see cross the finish line. Dad definitely left some big shoes to fill. I don’t think I came close to any of his times, but I was extremely happy just to be able to be out there and finish on such a historic day.”

Michael’s training for Boston 2014 was a struggle, as he faced the adversity of a historically cold New England winter. “When I began my training in January and February, my good friend, Gena Ricciardi, would run with me on my longer weekend runs. Having someone to talk to and keep me motivated definitely helped to make those my most enjoyable runs. Unfortunately, my work schedule got in the way of our partner runs as the distances got to be more time consuming. Those runs were definitely the best while they lasted!”

Although Michael had never run a full marathon, he had run a couple of prior half-marathons, including the Cape Cod Half-Marathon and the Gloucester Holiday Merry-Thon back in December. Michael planned to run Boston in 2013, but his aspirations were put on hold due to his U.S. Coast Guard orders. His training this winter included several long runs, including a 20-miler just three weeks out from race day, which he stated was the most difficult one of them all. “I rolled my ankle about 14 miles into that run, and had a tough 6 miles back to the house. Definitely not the way I planned to wrap up my training before the big race.”

All I all, Michael felt as though he was well conditioned for this year’s race. His late-training ankle injury caused him some hesitancy on Patriot’s Day, as he felt he was not “going into the race at 100%.” However, his competitive nature and dedication prevailed. “I knew I could finish. Luckily the ankle held up remarkably well, and most of the race was an enjoyable run.”

Jaelyn Walsh waits patiently for her Uncle Mike at Mile 21

Michael had supporters on the sidelines from Hopkinton to Boston and he ran into numerous familiar faces throughout the day. “I was really lucky to have friends and family all along the race course. Some highlights of the day were running with my cousin Kyle in Wellesley,” where he joined in and ran with Michael in his business suit, “seeing the Walsh’s at BC,” where he stopped for a quick photo opp and was motivated with some Advil and Gatorade, “and coming down Beacon into Kenmore Square, where it seemed like I was seeing the familiar faces of friends and family every couple of hundred yards! Having my mother and so many other family members, as well as my father’s good friends, Dick Vitale and Gary Fox, waiting for me when I crossed the finish line was another awesome feeling. A big thanks to everyone who made it out and braved the crowds and heat that day. Marathon Monday is a long day for everyone!”

Gary Fox and Dick Vitale congratulate Mike at the finish line

Support for Michael’s achievement even continued post-race, as friends and family members gathered at the Kowloon in his hometown of Saugus to help him replenish any of the salts and fluids he may have lost earlier in the day. “It was also nice getting texts from all of my less fortunate friends and family members who were stuck at work, but tracked my progress and continued to give me encouragement along the way.”

Michael was both exhausted and elated post-race. “The feeling of having 26.2 miles behind me was incredible…a huge sense of relief. I was really excited about the accomplishment and not letting myself or anyone else down. The ensuing days turned out to be almost as painful as the race itself, but certainly well worth it!”

The John Mastronardi Memorial Fund was Boston Strong in 2014!

When asked about his thoughts on a repeat performance in the future, Michael wouldn’t count it out, but is fine with passing the baton to someone else for 2015. “I would consider doing Boston again. It is such a unique marathon and an incredible atmosphere. I don’t know that I’d want to run 26 miles in any other environment. Having so many friends and family along the way really made it an awesome experience. However even with all the support, training for a race like that is a massive commitment, so I’m looking forward to giving someone else the chance to tackle it next year!”

Congratulations to Michael on a tremendous achievement!

Your Dad is very proud!

In 1995, the Mastronardi Committee began awarding scholarships to deserving Revere High graduates in memory of the late John Mastronardi.  Selected by the Revere Guidance Department, the scholarship recipients are chosen based on their academic success, as well as their desire to pursue a college degree in the field of Education or Special Education. Further, Mastronardi Scholarship winners are selected because they best embody the spirit of John Mastronardi, a former Special Education teacher in the Revere Public Schools.

The DiPlatzi and Smith Families on June 11, 2013

DiPlatzi, a member of the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society, wrapped up her high school career after being enrolled in all honors and advanced placement courses. She was a three-sport varsity athlete at Revere High, running cross country, indoor and outdoor track.  She was also a member of the “Friendship Club,” which pairs mentors with the special education population.  Maggie will attend Lesley University in the Fall and plans to major in Education, with the hopes of eventually becoming a Special Education Teacher. 

Smith graduated from Revere High ranked 11^th in her class and was enrolled in honors and AP classes during her high school tenure.  She is also a three-sport varsity athlete, playing soccer, basketball and outdoor track & field.  Smith participated in numerous community service projects and was involved with several extracurricular clubs and activities. She will attend Emmanuel College in the Fall and plans to pursue a degree in Education.

Congratulations Maggie and Danielle!