The Silvio Cella Family Foundation announced the 2019 recipients of its annual grant program, and this year’s recipients include Chelsea High School.
Annually, four high school football programs are selected to each receive a $3,000 grant to help improve playing conditions, increase player safety and participation, purchase needed equipment and build teamwork, pride and confidence. Since established in 2010, the Silvio Cella Family Foundation has donated over $100,000 to high school football programs throughout Massachusetts.
The 2019 recipients of the Silvio Cella Family Foundation grants are:
North: Chelsea High School
South: Southeastern Regional High School
Central: South High Community School
West: Pittsfield High School
“This much needed grant money will help these football programs to improve player safety and upgrade facilities and equipment, and build a sense of teamwork and community in these schools,” said Michael Cella, president, Silvio Cella Family Foundation. “We are honored to carry on my Dad’s legacy and support high school football in Massachusetts.”
Each school receives $3,000 from the Silvio Cella Family Foundation, to be used to support their football programs, per MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) guidelines.
Previous recipients of the Silvio Cella Family Foundation grants: Greater Lawrence Tech, Nauset Regional, Burncoat, South Hadley (2018); Tech Boston Academy, Worcester North, Holyoke, Tri County Regional Vocational Technical High School (2017); Brighton, Milton, Oxford, Pathfinder RVT High School (2016); Medford, Weymouth, Bartlett, Hoosac Valley High School (2015); Greater Lowell Technical, Cathedral, Doherty, Monument Mountain Regional High School (2014); Northeast Metro Tech, Randolph, Blackstone-Millville Regional, Smith Vocational & Agricultural (2013); Lawrence, Jeremiah Burke (Boston), Millis, Ware High School (2012); Framingham, Fitchburg, Pioneer Valley Regional High School (2011); as well as special donations to Revere High, where Coach Cella served as athletic director and head football coach for 49 years.
“Silvio Cella was an innovator on the field, and a champion for athletes and coaches. He motivated his players and those around him to give 100%, not only in football but especially in the classroom, at home and in the community,” Cella added. “The Silvio Cella Family Foundation is committed to player safety, and to preserving the integrity of high school football for generations to come.”
Chelsea student earns academic honors
Brittany Fitzgibbon, a teacher at Chelsea High School in Chelsea, MA has been awarded a James Madison Fellowship by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation of Alexandria, VA in its twenty-eighth annual fellowship competition. A total of 53 Fellowships were awarded in 2019. James Madison Fellowships support further study of American history by college graduates who aspire to become teachers of American history, American government, and social studies in the nation’s secondary schools, as well as by experienced secondary school teachers of the same subjects.
Named in the honor of the fourth president of the United States and acknowledged “Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights,” the fellowship will fund up to $24,000 of Ms. Fitzgibbon’s course of study toward a master’s degree. That program must include a concentration of courses on the history and principles of the United States Constitution.
Ms. Fitzgibbon was selected for a James Madison Fellowship in competition with applicants from Massachusetts. Additional fellowships were awarded in each of the states. The fellowship-funded by income from a trust fund in the Treasury of the United States and from additional private gifts, corporate contributions, and foundation grants – requires its recipient to teach American history or social studies in a secondary school for at least one year for each year of fellowship support. The award is intended to recognize promising and distinguished teachers, to strengthen their knowledge of the origins and development of American constitutional government, and thus to expose the nation’s secondary school students to accurate knowledge of the nation’s constitutional heritage. Founded by an act of Congress in 1986, the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation is an independent agency of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. In addition to offering fellowships, the Foundation undertakes other activities relating to secondary school education about the Constitution’s history. For more information please see www.jamesmadison.gov.