Gates Middle School mathematics teacher Mary Ellen Gaziano, a 1983 SHS graduate, has been a dedicated volunteer for the Jimmy Fund at the Dana Farber Institute for Pediatric Cancer Research for the past eighteen years. She has raised funds through the Jimmy Fund Walk, Andrea’s Art Auction, and Joshua’s Run. During the holiday season, she also plays a notable role in an annual toy drive for Tufts Children’s Hospital-Floating Building.

Gaziano’s involvement with fundraising and the holiday toy drive began with a personal connection through her eldest daughter, Andrea, who spent many holidays at Boston Children’s Hospital battling leukemia. “We were in the hospital for holidays, so we know how hard that is,” she said.

In 2006, Michelle Antle, Andrea’s dance teacher at Xplosion Dance Center, started a toy drive after Andrea lost her battle with cancer.  Gaziano said, “Andrea brought so much joy to the studio,” so her teacher “wanted to bring joy to other children.” Students at the studio donate toys to the drive, which prompted Gaziano to extend the opportunity to her colleagues when the new middle school building opened seven years ago.

During the holiday season, Gaziano sets up bins with a flier explaining the toy drive. Inspired by Gaziano’s thoughtfulness, Gates teachers donated approximately 200 toys to the drive in 2023. Collaborating with the dance studio and Gaziano’s younger daughter, Cara Gaziano, a 2013 SHS graduate who works as a physical therapist at Bay State Physical Therapy in Braintree, the Gaziano family delivered over 500 toys to Tufts Children’s Hospital in December.

Gaziano noted that the annual toy drive gives her family a joyful memory of Andrea: “It’s a gratifying thing to see all the people who are so generous and how year after year they ask about it.”