Uncle’s legacy to niece is to ‘Be Legendary’

Date: 8/10/2017

LONGMEADOW  – Cecilia Allentuck wants to both honor her late uncle John Pedace Jr.  and to spread his message of community service.

To do so, she and her friend Julia Manning, both entering the sixth grade, have organized the first annual “John Pedace Jr. Be Legendary Lacrosse Family Fun Day” at Elias Brookings Elementary School, 433 Walnut St., in Springfield on Aug. 24, from 4 to 6 p.m.  The activities will include games, a fire truck on display, tattoos, raffles, music, lacrosse demonstrations and more. The entrance donation will be $1 per person or $5 per family.

The money the event raises will be used to help fund programs and activities serving underprivileged youth and families in Springfield and other communities, according to Gianna Allentuck, Cecilia’s mom.

Pendace died in June and had been a special education paraprofessional at Central High School in Springfield. In 2011, he went to Tantasqua Regional High School, where he served as a special education paraprofessional and was the boys’ varsity lacrosse coach.

Gianna explained the lacrosse element of the event reflects not only her brother’s passion but also provides a common talking point among the attendees.

“Aside from the obvious of raising awareness about lacrosse and the power of helping others, this event also brings together people from different worlds who can connect and unite under the common goal of learning about and helping each other,” she explained.

She added, “When John was a senior at Minnechaug Regional in 1985, he started the lacrosse program and continued to play all his adult life.  When he was a paraprofessional at Central High School, he wanted to start a lacrosse program, believing that lacrosse is an amazing sport and would offer such great opportunities for Springfield youth who are not otherwise engaged in athletics.  He then moved to Tantasqua to be closer to home and to coach their team, where the team and he met with huge success. Now that he is gone, we heard rumors that Central High School might be starting a Lacrosse team and so my daughter wanted to raise money to help them in John's honor.”

The first project for the two girls was to write notes to all of their classmates in the fifth grade and give them a “Be Legendary” wristband. The notes told them that each of them were “legendary” and asked them to share why they are.

Cecilia explained her reason to undertake the effort by saying, “Since our uncle was such as great person, we wanted to do it.” She added, “We wanted to give back to the community.”

The event on Aug. 24 is to try to reach out to a larger group of people.

World champion Lacrosse player Matt Striebel will also be attending the event on Aug. 24. He is a high school lacrosse coach at Northampton High School and a professional lacrosse player who has earned three Major League Lacrosse (MLL) championships, a league record eight MLL All-Star recognitions and an MLL championship game MVP award. He is also a three-time Team USA representative and two-time World Lacrosse Championship gold medalist.

Striebel has donated an autographed lacrosse helmet, which will be presented as the first Be Legendary award at the event.

Cecilia said the family day is just the beginning of her effort. “I want to keep doing it,” she added.