Giuseppe Bonanno, who died in a motorcycle accident in July, played for the Lakers. A memorial game to raise money for a newly created foundation in his name is set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, at Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
The inaugural Giuseppe Bonanno Memorial Game is set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, at at Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia. Bonanno, who played for the Lakers, died earlier this year in a motorcycle accident. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
The inaugural Giuseppe Bonanno Memorial Game is set for at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, at Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia. Bonanno, who previously played for the Lakers, died earlier this year in a motorcycle accident. The game is a fundraiser for a scholarship foundation in his honor. (Courtesy image/Jessica Daniels)
Giuseppe Bonanno passed away following a motorcycle accident earlier this year. Now, family members have created a foundation in his name which will offer scholarships and lifetime fishing licenses to students pursuing a career in conservation law enforcement. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
Giuseppe Bonanno passed away following a motorcycle accident earlier this year. Now, family members have created a foundation in his name which will offer scholarships and lifetime fishing licenses to students pursuing a career in conservation law enforcement. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
Giuseppe Bonanno passed away following a motorcycle accident earlier this year. Now, family members have created a foundation in his name which will offer scholarships and lifetime fishing licenses to students pursuing a career in conservation law enforcement. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
Giuseppe Bonanno, who died in a motorcycle accident in July, played for the Lakers. A memorial game to raise money for a newly created foundation in his name is set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, at Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
The inaugural Giuseppe Bonanno Memorial Game is set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, at at Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia. Bonanno, who played for the Lakers, died earlier this year in a motorcycle accident. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
The inaugural Giuseppe Bonanno Memorial Game is set for at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, at Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia. Bonanno, who previously played for the Lakers, died earlier this year in a motorcycle accident. The game is a fundraiser for a scholarship foundation in his honor. (Courtesy image/Jessica Daniels)
Giuseppe Bonanno passed away following a motorcycle accident earlier this year. Now, family members have created a foundation in his name which will offer scholarships and lifetime fishing licenses to students pursuing a career in conservation law enforcement. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
Giuseppe Bonanno passed away following a motorcycle accident earlier this year. Now, family members have created a foundation in his name which will offer scholarships and lifetime fishing licenses to students pursuing a career in conservation law enforcement. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
Giuseppe Bonanno passed away following a motorcycle accident earlier this year. Now, family members have created a foundation in his name which will offer scholarships and lifetime fishing licenses to students pursuing a career in conservation law enforcement. (Courtesy photo/Jessica Daniels)
LACONIA — Giuseppe Bonanno loved playing hockey, riding motorcycles and aspired to work for New Hampshire Fish and Game. He died July 12 in a motorcycle accident in Belmont and now, friends and family have created a foundation in his name to help students pursue the same dreams.
Bonanno, 18, of Northfield, was a member of the Lakers, a youth hockey team which plays its games at Merrill Fay Arena. The Giuseppe M. Bonanno Foundation will hold its first fundraiser, which they hope to recur each year, at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2. The Lakers will take on the Kearsarge-Plymouth Cats on the ice. Bonanno was friends with members of both teams, making the match personal for everybody.
His mother, Jessica Daniels, spearheaded the effort to create the foundation and said the game will feature a bake sale, 50/50 raffle, signed Boston Bruins memorabilia donated by team alumni, and a raffle for a 55-inch television donated by Walmart. There’s also going to be an informational booth about the foundation and an apparel booth selling foundation clothing, hats, bracelets and keychains. All proceeds will go to the mission of the Giuseppe M. Bonanno Foundation, a nonprofit.
And that mission is important — Daniels said she hopes to grow the foundation’s scope and depth moving forward, but their initial project is to provide two qualifying teens with lifetime fishing licenses and two accompanying scholarships for conservation law enforcement programs.
“I dream of the foundation having an office where youth and families will enter and see pictures of Giuseppe hanging on the wall looking at them with a smile, holding a monster bass he caught,” Daniels said. “And they feel his enthusiasm and zeal for life and are inspired to learn to fish or take up a new outdoor hobby.”
Eventually, Daniels said she’d like to see the foundation provide mentorship to young people in pursuing their goals, organizing outdoor excursions for students, training youth in CPR and first aid, establishing wildlife conservation efforts like tree planting or milfoil mitigation, and offering parents support after the loss of a child.
Thomas Black, who spent lots of time with Giuseppe and viewed him as a son, said the game was a good way to honor him, and putting students through a conservation law enforcement program would have meant a lot to him.
“Giuseppe loved Fish and Game,” Black said. “That was his goal.”
Daniels said her son was a magnetic personality who drew people in — he was that way since infancy — and she and Giuseppe’s father, Joseph, made it a priority to maintain an active and outdoor lifestyle. Going outside and eating dinner every night as a family, Daniels said, probably had something to do with Giuseppe’s life goal of becoming a conservation officer.
“Whether we were riding bikes, hiking, snowmobiling, skiing, skating, dirt bike racing, fishing, boating, it didn’t matter what the activity was, we just wanted the family to be together in the fresh air,” she said. “I think those two values played a role in Giuseppe’s passion for the great outdoors and his loyalty to his friends.”
Giuseppe always had an adventurous streak, Daniels said. Though he was an avid athlete and enjoyed all sports, his father Joseph raced dirt bikes professionally in his younger years. They put Giuseppe on one when was 3, and racing became his primary sport and a passion through his youth. He branched out in high school, playing football and later hockey, when the Lakers were short on players and he decided to give it a shot. He learned to skate at 15 and loved the sport.
“We admired his bravery and supported his ambition,” Daniels said. “He loved his team, the sport and made many friends through hockey.”
He cultivated those friendships and kept them, partly due to a unique personality and deep caring for others.
“You couldn’t help but smile when you saw him because he was easy to be yourself around. He didn’t judge anyone, he was welcoming, hilarious, protective, and just cool and fun,” Daniels said. “People knew they were going to be in the presence of a genuine, loving, fun person.”
One day, while Daniels was visiting Giuseppe’s grave, a teenage girl arrived. Daniels was crying and when she gathered herself, she quipped that Bonanno was the only teenage boy who’d ever made her cry. The girl responded and said Bonanno was the only boy who didn’t make her cry, and was there for her when she did.
And Bonanno knew from a young age he was interested in going into law enforcement. Coupled with his passion for the outdoors and sporting, Fish and Game was the perfect match. Daniels said when Bonanno was around 10 or 11 years old, he expressed interest in joining the military before becoming a game warden.
“It was all he could talk about, and he never changed his goal as he grew and would share his future intentions with us,” she said.
He intended to join the New Hampshire National Guard and pursue a degree in the conservation law enforcement program at White Mountain Community College, deciding at some point that was the best path for him to achieve his goals. His love of fishing, the lakes and mountains, his desire to stop poaching and help rescue missing or injured hikers, and educating young people, and a realization that through his career he would be outside an office, doing something different every day, influenced greatly his pursuit of the profession.
Now, Daniels said she’s turning her grief into some tangible good.
“I will continue to help spread Giuseppe’s love and bright energy to the world,” she said.
With the help of local attorneys, Daniels created the Giuseppe M. Bonanno Foundation. She started by contacting people close to Giuseppe, his friends and family, teachers, local professionals and bringing together a board of directors. They filed all of the paperwork necessary to start, and hit the ground running.
To find out more about the foundation, how to help and stay up-to-date with events, find them on Facebook at facebook.com/61570979247215, or email gmbfoundation481@gmail.com.
“I believed in my son, and I loved him more than anything else in this world,” Daniels said.
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