DERBY — Derby High School junior Vincent Nuzzo, 16, is organizing a home run derby scheduled to be held May 17. Proceeds from the event will benefit ALS United Connecticut, a nonprofit group that helps people living with ALS.
Vincent’s fundraiser is personal: his aunt, Kay Passaro, passed away from ALS in 2023.
There is a $25 entry fee. See the flyer below for details about getting involved.
The Valley Indy conducted a written Q & A with Vincent prior to the event.
VIS: This sounds like a wonderful event. Tell me a little bit about why you decided to do this, and how you landed on a home run derby in Derby as a way to benefit ALS United Connecticut.
Vincent: “I decided to do this because being in the National Honor Society you have to do a service project. I immediately wanted to do something that would benefit ALS and with my love of baseball I thought about a home run derby.”
VIS: You play baseball and you’re in the National Honor Society? In the honor society, are projects like this encouraged and/or required?
Vincent: “We are required to do a service project. To what extent you do is up to you personally.”
VIS: When you first thought of the event, was it overwhelming to think of all the steps that were in front of you in order to make this happen?
Vincent: “A little bit. I knew that there was a lot that was going to need to be done but I was prepared for the challenge. My mom has helped me along the way with promoting on her social media.”
VIS: Tell me a little bit about your aunt, as someone who never met her. What was her personality like?
Vincent: “My aunt was extremely family oriented and loved to be together. She always had a smile on her face and loved doing whatever she could for all of us.”
VIS: Is there anyone you could touch base with about how to pull this off?
Vincent: “My uncle is big into baseball so when I decided this is what I wanted to do we sat down together and wrote out details of how we can do this. We came up with age groups, timing to hit, prize ideas and just talked about how I wanted it to go.”
VIS: How do people sign up?
Vincent: “They can reach out to me or my mom Erica. The phone number is 203-893-5377 or by email ericapassaro@aol.com.”
VIS: The flyer mentions prizes and raffles. Give me some examples of the prizes and raffles to be made available.
Vincent: “So, for the winner of each age group there will be a Dick’s gift card. And for raffles so far we have donations from Pampered Chef, Dew Drop, Bigelow Tea, The Adventure Park, and Chick Fil-A.”
VIS: What position do you play for Derby baseball?
Vincent: “This season my main position is short stop and I pitch. But I also play outfield for my travel team.”
VIS: Are you nervous about the event?
Vincent: “A little bit. I just want it to be a huge success and I want everyone to have fun and want to do this again next year.”
VIS: “What’s the biggest challenge to pulling this off? Any lessons learned?”
Vincent: “Our biggest challenge so far is getting kids and adults to sign up. I thought when we started to advertise we would have gotten a lot of registrations but our numbers are still pretty low. Do you want to sign up? LOL.”
VIS: “I’m contractually obligated to stick to eating contests. Yankees or Red Sox?
Vincent: “Yankees all day.”
VIS: Anything you want to add that I’m not asking?
Vincent: “Just want to mention we do have a DJ coming, food from Frankie’s, The Hydrant Dirty Soda Shop will be there, and we are selling t-shirts too.
This fundraiser means a lot to me and my family and I hope we can start something big with this so we can do it every year.”