Girls' high school basketball team and Dick Melloni Foundation to hold fundraiser game for teen

Feb 2, 2016

Since his cancer reemerged in November 2015, the town of Wareham has rallied to support Trey Miranda. And that support will continue, at the girls’ basketball game against Old Rochester Regional Feb. 5.

The 17-year-old Wareham High School student recently returned home from Boston Children’s Hospital, where he was receiving a combination of radiation, chemotherapy, and steroidal treatment to get rid of the two stage four tumors wrapped around his brain stem. He is currently receiving chemotherapy at home.

High school girls’ basketball coach David Brogioli said the team decided to start holding annual fundraisers for families in need last year. As they did last year, the team partnered with the Dick Melloni Youth Foundation, a Wareham-based fundraising campaign that helps area families in need, principally through its annual toy drive during the holidays.

“When we talked to the kids … it immediately came back to Trey,” Brogioli said. “Our captain is very close to Trey, as are two of our four seniors.”

Last year, the team raised more than $4,200 for the campaign, but they also had to subtract the cost of the game. This year, however, Brogioli said the foundation will be covering the cost of the game, so the team may donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the Mirandas.

Brogioli said he had hoped the team could schedule a double-header, or some sort of larger event to draw more people, but the timing just didn’t work out this year. That said, he is hopeful the ORR game “would be a good chance to get people there.”

“The more people there, the more money we can get,” Brogioli said. “We figured the [ORR] game would draw a good gate.”

There will be a few raffles at the game, including a Celtics basket with a jersey, and two tickets to a Celtics game; and a large board with scratch tickets on it. Brogioli also said there would be a bake sale. He also said there will be a donation table for the family near the door of the game.

“We are confident the town will fill the stands for them,” Brogioli said. “If they want to donate, great, but if they just want to raffle, all the money is going to him.”