{"id":20305,"date":"2024-02-26T19:24:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T00:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/?p=20305"},"modified":"2024-02-26T19:29:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T00:29:59","slug":"magro-madness-2024-basketball-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/magro-madness-2024-basketball-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Magro Madness 2024 Basketball Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On Saturday, March 2, 2024, starting at 9 AM, you\u2019re invited to come out and enjoy a day of authentic Long Island spirit and sports with Magro Madness at LuHi gymnasium at 131 Brookville Road, Glen Head, NY. Whether you choose to compete in a 3-on-3 team, be a local vendor, or enjoy the games with family and friends, this is a must-attend event if you\u2019re looking for a great Saturday outing and want to add more purpose to your day.<\/p>\n

Magro Madness<\/a><\/strong> is a play on March Madness basketball and invites locals to a friendly and fun tournament of 3-on-3 basketball with a great purpose. Registration for teams to compete is only $100. Local businesses and hobbyists are invited to be vendors for just $50. Entry to the public is free. Sponsorship opportunities are still available.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Montana, Founder and President of MDP Lacrosse, started Magro Madness in 2014 to help raise much-needed funds for the Michael Magro Foundation, a Long Island 501(c) 3, which donates 90% of every dollar raised to families battling pediatric cancer. Magro Madness has raised over $46,000 towards this mission. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to raise that number tremendously in 2024 as the need is growing so fast,\u201d shares Montana.<\/p>\n

In 2004 Paul and Terrie Magro had both of their prepubescent sons, Marc and Michael, diagnosed with pediatric cancer within months of each other. Thankfully Marc is a survivor who lives a full life. Sadly, Michael quickly lost his battle within seven weeks of being diagnosed.<\/p>\n

Most people would have given Terrie, then a Registered Nurse, and Paul, a professional chef, complete rights to \u201ctake it easy\u201d, to \u201crecoup\u201d and even wallow a bit, but that\u2019s just not in their blood.<\/p>\n

Instead, the couple decided to start The Michael Magro Foundation to help other families dealing with the same unbearable diagnosis. \u201cYou not only deal with the devastating diagnosis of your child having cancer, but you also lose significant income as one parent has to stop working to care for your child full-time and expenses skyrocket,\u201d shares the Magro\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s favorite two sports were Lacrosse and Basketball. \u201cWhen Jimmy approached us with Magro Madness, it was the perfect way to both honor his life and bring the community together to help others,\u201d recalls Terrie.<\/p>\n

Since its founding in 2005, the foundation has raised and given away nearly $4 million directly to families in need, helping an average of 300 families a year. Patients are vetted by hospital social workers and bills are paid directly to vendors, often stopping evictions, car repossessions, and insurance cancellations. Sometimes the donations simply put food on the table.<\/p>\n

On March 7, 2020, just a week before the COVID-19 shutdown, the Magro Madness tournament reached its highest registration ever with 50 competing teams, tables on tables of vendors, and<\/p>\n

maximum capacity fans. \u201cIt was our biggest year ever,\u201d says Jimmy Montana. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to get back to pre-pandemic turnout soon. We\u2019ll be more than halfway there this year,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the tournament has been held at Hicksville Middle and High Schools until the move to LuHi in 2023.<\/p>\n

Fellow Hicksville residents, Tom and Kim Kuck, LuHi staff members and graduates, fought pediatric cancer and lost their 5-year-old daughter, Amanda, 8 years ago. Tom is instrumental in securing the facility and managing operations on the event day. \u201cWe are honored to be able to help the Magro Foundation in any way that we can. When your family is impacted by pediatric cancer, it leaves an everlasting mark on your life,\u201d shares Tom and Kim. \u201cWe were very fortunate to have lots of support, which began with the Magro Foundation. Terrie Magro was one of the first people to connect with us after Amanda was diagnosed. It\u2019s important to us to be able to help the foundation raise money to do the same for other families affected by pediatric cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Countless others have contributed to the big audacious mission the Michael Magro Foundation carries. Ed Hebron, long-time CYO coach and organizer as well as Julia Bentrewicz, HHS multi-sport athlete and now teacher in Hicksville both play a huge role in making this event a success. Joe Slaninka, head coach of the wheelchair basketball program at Henry Viscardi School pushed skills to the limit when he led the mixed wheelchair 3-on-3 tournament. \u201cIt was surprisingly difficult for the non-wheelchair competitors,\u201d laughed Jimmy. Tom Galati, MMF board member, will be a hype man and keep the crowd amped along with long-time contributor DJ Geoff Cohen. In addition this year we will have Le Selfie photo mirror taking pictures of the crowd that can be shared and enjoyed, They will all be on site this year and we hope you\u2019ll be too. For further information please visit our website: https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, March 2, 2024, starting at 9 AM, you\u2019re invited to come out and enjoy a day of authentic Long Island spirit and sports with Magro Madness at LuHi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20310,"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20305\/revisions\/20310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelmagrofoundation.com\/old2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}