Prep Talk
Caritas Project Makes NBC 10 News
Posted September 18th, 2011
What started out to be just a 3 v 3 Basketball Shootout Fundraiser for St. Augustine Prep Seniors Regan O’Connor and Michael Tedesco’s Caritas Project , turned into a Delaware Valley feature Story on NBC10 Good News that aired on August 5, 2011. NBC10 found the “Good News” in Regan and Michaels efforts to raise awareness of the importance for finding Forever Families for children in foster care.
Regan and Michael who are both adopted quickly came to the conclusion that their Caritas project that was going to be focused on trying in some way to help children in foster care. Their research led them to the Dave Thomas Foundation that has as its purpose finding Forever Families for children in foster care. The Thomas Foundation was the perfect charity for Regan and Michael who wish that every child in foster care find the love and support that comes with permanent adoption. “If you are going to do something for over 100 hours, it is much easier when helping others touches you personally”, said Mike Tedesco.
As part of the project, Regan and Michael contacted the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and entered into a relationship as volunteers and supporters of the Dublin, OH nationally based organization in order to donate the funds that they raised.
The boys project caught the attention of Sports Reporter Vai Sikahema who personally supports raising awareness for foster children on his weekly show, “ Wednesday’s Child”. Vai passed the information on to the NBC 10 Good News producers who contacted Regan and Michael to arrange to visit with them and interview them for the Good News show. On learning of the project and the news station’s interest, Ms. Shayna Daubert, Senior Manager for Development of the Dave Thomas Foundation, emailed Regan and Michael telling them, “We are so caught up in the excitement about [Regan and Michael’s] commitment to our mission. We are going to post it on our social media pages and our website.”
The 3 v 3 Caritas Shootout was held on July 23rd, but really was only the start. The response from the Thomas Foundation and the televised story on NBC10 that has and continues to be re-aired on NBC Philadelphia Nonstop (the next airing will be September 21 at 8:30am, 1:30pm, and 4:30pm on Comcast 248, Verizon 460, and the over the air channel 10.2), has created more interest in the project than Regan or Michael could ever have imagined. “We continue to receive donations from families, friends and even some people we never met because they saw the news show,” said Regan. “We think it is great that the word continues to get out helping our cause. Tedesco and I are very thankful for the support that we have received from everyone. It would be awesome if even just one child was adopted because of what we did”, he said.