ABOUT THE FUND
The events of 9/11 were staggering and left our family reeling with grief and disbelief. Our son and brother was gone. Nick’s brother Pete during the weeks just following 9/11 contacted Port Richmond High School, Nick’s Alma Mater and started the ball rolling to establish a fund in Nick’s name, in an endeavor to make sure that Nick would never be forgotten. And so we now have the Nicholas Rossomando Memorial Scholarship Fund.

When Pete conferred with the Athletic Department at Port Richmond High School, they came up with the criteria to be used to choose the recipients of Nick’s scholarship award. They decided that two students would receive the award each year, a male and a female athlete. They would have had to have faced great adversities, overcome them and gone on to achieve. Of course, they would’ve had to apply and been accepted to a college of their choice. Each recipient receives a $1,000 scholarship award that is paid directly to the college’s bursars office in the student’s name. Our goal is to continue to raise money so in the future perhaps we would be able to give a larger award. But for now we are ecstatic that we are able to do this in Nick’s memory.

The presentation each year takes place at Port Richmond’s Award Assembly held in June, and is presented by a family member. To follow are the names of the recipients of Nick’s scholarship award to date:
  • 2002 - Nicole Renzi & George McGuire
  • 2003 - Elizabeth Drozd & Marvin Jenkins
  • 2004 - Crystal Palfini & John Ring
  • 2005 - Jessica Nieto & Miguel Sosa
  • 2006 - Nancy Almazo & Jahsee Pickering
  • 2007 - Sandra DeVito & Thomas Fernan
l. to r. Laurie Blaine, Barbara Scaramuzzino, & Nick Taber

2008 and stronger than ever, to follow, the information about this year’s award recipients.

On June 11, 2008, Port Richmond High School held its annual Awards Assembly. Pete Rossomando, Nick’s brother and originator of the fund, gave out the awards to this years recipients, Laurie Blaine and Nick Taber.

Each year since the inception of the fund we have given to a male student athlete and a female student athlete $ 1,000.00 each. In 2006 we began our association with the ING NYC Marathon as a Charity Partner and as a result of that association we have been able to increase the award to each student to $2,000.00 in 2007 and $4,000.00 to each student in 2008. We are so grateful for this association because it allows us to keep Nick’s memory alive in a big way and to keep on doing what Nick had always done, helping others. We hope that our association with the marathon is one that will last a long time. Our desire is to be able to increase our scholarships even more.

The criteria for a student athlete to receive an award from the fund, is to have faced adversity, overcoming it, and going on to achieve their goals. Our two recipients have certainly done this. Laurie, a permanent honor roll student took the usual, English, Math, History, and Science, but the course she enjoyed the most was music, jazz band in particular. She loves music and plays the trumpet. She earned the title of Student of the Month for Music. She was also selected as Raider of the Month.

Laurie will attend the College at Oneonta, Fall 2008, majoring in music. She plans to pursue a career in music. She feels that she is very good at what she does and doesn’t want to give it up, she enjoys it too much. She says that she’s not too sure how she will apply what she learns at Oneonta, but at this time she is toying with the idea of being a music teacher. We wish her all the best and know that she will do really well.

Nick received honors in all his studies at Port Richmond High. He had A.P. English, Italian, Global History, American History, Calculus and Physics. He enjoyed A.P. Physics the most he said, because he felt that it really challenged him. He told me that he received honor roll status, permanent honor roll status, and earned two Blue Chip Awards. He received the Scholar Athlete Award and the Student Athlete Award as well.

Nick says that he would like to be successful participating in college football, but more importantly he wants to work hard in his studies, he is going to take Engineering, so that when he enters the work force after college graduation he will be able to command an excellent starting salary. I think he has what it takes to do that.