Frankie Garbolino of North Brunswick – who will play for Team Rose in the Marisa Rose Bowl in June 29, 2023 – works with a student at the Lakeview School in Edison, one of the game’s beneficiaries. (Photo: Marcus Borden)
No matter what you call the Marisa Rose Bowl – even if you go back to the game’s inception in 1994 as the Snapple Bowl – it’s been a part of the fabric of the Lakeview School in Edison for three decades now.
In the beginning, Venus Majeski had her doubts.
“I’ll be honest, I was skeptical,” says Majeski, who is the Director of Development and Community Relations for the New Jersey Institute for Disabilities, working out of the Lakeview School in bucolic Roosevelt Park.
But the positivity and energy the game’s founder – then-East Brunswick coach Marcus Borden – brought to their initial meetings quickly turned her around.
Now, “pep rally day” – when players and cheerleaders visit – is a highlight of the year for the several hundred students who call Lakeview School home.
The game has raised over $736,000 for charity since it began, also benefitting the PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick, and for the last couple of years, working in conjunction with the Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko’s interview with Venus Majeski of the New Hersey Institute for Disabilities and the Lakeview School, including her story of how the game came to be in her meetings with founder Marcus Borden:
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