WALTHAM, Mass. – During this Saturday's football game against the University of New Haven, the Bentley University Falcons will be participating in the Marisa Tufaro Memorial Gif Card Drive to benefit pediatric patients and their families at Boston Children's Hospital.

Spectators are asked to consider dropping off a gift card at the gate upon arriving at the game. The hospital's gift card needs are specifically for Amazon, Target, CVS, Starbucks, Au bon pain, VISA and American Express in specific denominations of $10, $15 and $20.

Freshman running back Andrew Brazicki, the Falcons' leading rusher, has been playing all season with a special commemorative pink band on his wrist, a tribute to Marisa Tufaro, who died earlier this year at the age of 13 following a long illness.

Marisa is the daughter of New Jersey sports writer Greg Tufaro, who covered Brazicki during his career as a three-sport star at Bishop Ahr High School in Edison, N.J., where the Tufaro family lives. Brazicki received the wristband from The Marisa Tufaro Foundation while participating in a charity all-star football game last summe

Marisa's parents, Greg and Cyndi, established The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, a nonprofit with tax-exempt status pending, six months after her death as a way of giving back to their hometown community, which has long provided overwhelming love and support. The foundation's mission statement reads: "Helping children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County (N.J.) area."

The foundation's reach, however, is about to extend to the greater Middlesex County (Mass.) area, thanks to the involvement of Brazicki and the Bentley football program.

"Andrew is among the finest student-athletes I have been privileged to write about during nearly three decades of covering scholastic sports," said Greg Tufaro. "He is a true gentleman on and off the field. Our family is deeply touched that Andrew continues to honor Marisa by wearing our foundation's pink wristband. Words can't express our gratitude to Andrew and the entire Bentley University football program for its willingness to participate in a gift card drive for the pediatric patients at Boston Children's Hospital."

Brazicki, who was named the Northeast-10 Conference's Football Rookie of the Week last month, has rushed for a team-leading 442 yards and scored seven touchdowns. Brazicki said he feels as though he has an angel in Marisa watching over his shoulder.

"I know what the wristband means, and I think every day how lucky I am to keep playing this sport, and to know that someone is looking down on me," said Brazicki, adding that Bentley University's participation in the gift card drive, "shows that we care and that we are trying to help through athletics."

The gift cards will be used to assist economically strained parents of children in medical crisis who typically lose wages while being out of work and incur costs that health insurers do not cover including travel, lodging, food and personal expenses. The gift cards will also be used to purchase necessities or other items including toys for hospitalized children, all of whom can benefit from a diversion to help cope with the stress and pain that can accompany treatments, medical procedures and extended admissions.

"We help to celebrate birthdays and special occasions here at Boston Children's Hospital," said Kirsten Getchell, Child Life Specialist at Boston Children's Hospital.  "Many teens, when asked what they want for their birthday, request a gift card so they can shop themselves.  When in the hospital, teens often have little control over what is happening to them. However, by giving them the choice to pick out what they want for a special occasion we are able to provide them with a sense of control and normalcy.  Although this may not seem like a big deal, it's often the small things in life that make the biggest difference."

Marisa was once a patient at Boston Children's Hospital, which played a brief but integral role in her healthcare. Despite being hospitalized for more than two years at four hospitals during her lifetime, Marisa, who maintained hundreds of doctor's appointments, lived a vibrant life that inspired.

During a vacation to Boston three years ago, Marisa became ill without warning and was admitted with severe respiratory distress through the emergency department to the Cardiac Inpatient Unit at Boston Children's Hospital.

More than 250 miles from home and even further away from the exceptional medical team that routinely cared for Marisa at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), her parents had the utmost confidence in the doctors and nurses at Boston Children's Hospital, which U.S. News & World Report ranks No. 1 in the nation.

Marisa, who was born with a congenital heart defect and had already undergone six open-heart surgeries, was treated for three days at Boston Children's Hospital for suspected viral pneumonia, which an astute pediatric cardiologist correctly predicted was actually a life-threatening condition known as plastic bronchitis.

The official diagnosis of plastic bronchitis, made 72 hours later at CHOP, coupled with another life-threatening condition with which Marisa was already living, called protein-losing enteropathy, led her to undergo a heart transplant at New York Presbyterian's Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

The heart transplant, which was supposed to extend Marisa's life, tragically cut it short after a postoperative complication developed into a rare form of Stage IV cancer that riddled her brain and body. After radiation and chemotherapy treatments failed to thwart the relentless onslaught of the disease, Marisa succumbed to her illness in January.

On July 30, which would have been Marisa's 14th birthday, Greg and Cyndi launched The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, which in less than three months has already made a tremendous impact in the Middlesex County (N.J.) area.