Photo courtesy of Connetquot Central School District
Ronkonkoma Middle School in the Connetquot Central School District hosted its third annual Dezy Strong Week during its physical education classes.
In preparation for the week, students were shown a video, telling Matthew “Dezy” DiStefano’s story and were given information about his foundation. The Dezy Strong Foundation is a nonprofit organization established by Matthew “Dezy” DiStefano who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer in February 2019 and passed away in January 2020. The foundation helps support others affected by cancer. Dezy was a Sachem High School North alumni, teacher and coach whose family lives in the Connetquot Central School District.
During Dezy Strong Week, the entire student body as well as members of the administration and faculty were split into two teams, team orange or team blue, to compete in a schoolwide volleyball tournament to raise money for the foundation. Teams were rotated every four minutes and scores were tallied during each physical education class.
Each day, a “player of the day” from each grade level and a “teacher of the day” were selected for exemplifying characteristics that the coaches thought Dezy would be most proud of.
In total, the fundraiser raised $6,381 for the foundation.
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