Guido Morsella fundraising for American Cancer Society and to fight his son Davide's rare disease: "Just got to keep going"
ELIZABETH, N.J. -- Guido Morsella, an 18-year veteran teacher at Elizabeth High School, was born in Italy and raised in Jersey City.
Morsella and his students organize the Relay For Life, an overnight benefit to raise money for the America Cancer Society. But this isn't just any relay - it has become one of the top five fundraisers in the country.
"So exciting. So exciting for our school, and for our students that have worked so hard in raising money for American Cancer," said Morsella. "We had reached, right before COVID, we were at $60,000 that year. The year before we raised about $70,000. This year so far we're about, almost at $34,000."
The Elizabeth kids love to fundraise. Last weekend's second annual 5k Walk For Relay raised an additional $2,000. The planning begins in October, and the students take the lead.
"The students are just awesome, and having great fundraising ideas, and being able to reach out to the community, to businesses . It's just an overall feel-good project.
Morsella'a students mean everything to him. Some of them have been touched by cancer.
Morsella's dad Davide recently passed from cancer. His wife Jacqueline's father is sadly on his final journey, but her sadness cannot diminish her overwhelming sense of pride for her husband.
"It's amazing to me, how he gets all the kids riled up, and he's just so, so encouraging," she said.
Morsella would do more if he could. He's also raising two boys, Luka and Davide. Davide was a happy and healthy, fun loving 12-year-old who loved baseball and dancing, but when Davide was 12, something changed..
"One day, started falling. And then, next, started slurring his speech. And, you know, it brought us on a different journey of, you know, how do we help him? What is going on?" Morsella said.
The Morsellas' lives would change forever. It took doctors four years to finally get an answer.
"While the diagnosis wasn't what we wanted to hear, but at least we know what we we are dealing with. So, Davide suffers from a rare disease called IRF2BPL, and it's a mutation of a gene, a neuro-degenerative disease that has loss of muscle function and loss of speech. That brings us to where we are today with Davide. He's unable to walk and unable to speak," said Morsella.
The Morsellas do everything in their power to make Davide comfortable. His condition is so rare, when diagnosed he was one of only nine people affected worldwide.
"He is our love, and we try and support him as much as we can," Jacqueline Morsella said.
Davide took Wragge on a tour of his room. He loves the San Francisco 49ers.
Sadly, Davide's condition will continue to get worse. Funding is needed desperately to give kids like Davide a fighting chance.
Wragge told Davide how happy he was to meet him, and thanked him for letting him visit his home. Davide texted back "Thank you, Chris" and "continue fighting."
That's Guido's mantra as well.
"It's always been my motto to just give back and, you know, we've got to work with the cards we've been dealt, and just got to keep going," Morsella said.
CLICK HERE to donate to the Giving Back Fund, Davide Morsella's fundraiser.
