At the Dairy Queen he owned and worked at summers and weekends during half of his teaching career, Nick Ascienzo learned how to dish it out. Now, he’s serving up another kind of treat.
A million dollars, to be exact.
That is the amount this Red Hook math teacher has pledged to his newly created foundation. The million dollars came from his entrepreneurship at the Saugerties ice cream franchise he owned with a partner, and his investments.
Just this month, the Ascienzo Family Foundation (http://www.ascienzofamilyfoundation.org) received its 5013c nonprofit status. The foundation’s mission is to provide funding for education, elder care and services for those in poverty as part of the Red Hook Initiative; and to provide grants for programs nationwide in which his team of ambassadors is involved. Its first round of grants will be authorized this fall.
Ascienzo said he knows he’s made a huge difference in the lives of many students over the years and is now ready to make a difference in a different way. He will do it alongside many of his former students: The foundation’s team of ambassadors are all fresh-faced, young alumni of Red Hook.
A member of the Red Hook Faculty Association, led by Patti Messmer, Ascienzo and his foundation are already planning to share with the local union’s community outreach effort. He recently reached an agreement with the FA.
“Every year in the fall, the FA raises money for food that is distributed to families in need for the holidays,” he said. “ I told Patti that, for every dollar raised, we (the foundation) would give you $2.”
Ascienzo just finished his 41st year in front of the class and he has spent many of those years coaching baseball. Now, he is seriously staring at retirement.
Not the 18-hole kind of retirement. But, rather, one that will find him immersed in the work of his charitable foundation.
He has pulled students, faculty and community leaders into the folds of his foundation as ambassadors or board members.
“I had a group of students who made a big impression on me,” he said. Five years ago, when he first considering retiring, he met several students who “recharged my batteries.” He stayed on in the classroom.
Now, these students are among his 13 ambassadors.
“They are the ones who are going to make this go,” he said.
On the foundation’s website, he says that, each year, he challenges his graduating seniors to make a list of goals and to share that list with friends and family in order to get motivation and guidance to reach those goals. Now, he says, he is taking his own advice.
“That advice was buoyed by the significant influence of two former students; ‘daughters I never had’ who unwittingly shaped my vision in the foundation’s birth,” he said. Those students, Betsy Kirtland, ambassador, and Sophie Laing, a member of the board of directors, are both at Tufts University.
Red Hook colleague Corrine Hermans, is also part of the foundation. "Nick is considered a "legend" within our school community because of his longevity and his undeniable dedication to his work. He puts his students before everything else and is a role model for his fellow colleagues. I am proud to be a member of the board of directors and I am excited to see the impact The Ascienzo Family Foundation will have on so many communities in the years to come," Hermans said.
Ascienzo, who has been teaching AP calculus and international baccalaureate math, believes that today’s society is skewed in its fixation and admiration of celebrities, both in sports and in movies and TV.
Many people, he said, “have lost perspective about what’s important. I’m not so sure our younger kids understand that.”
The foundation is one way to inspire both students and adults to reshift focus from what the paparazzi seeks out to what the heart seeks. Helping and being helped can do that.
The foundation’s Red Hook Initiative will strive to work with existing community agencies to help them with funding.
“We’ve had tons of meetings,” Ascienzo said.
One example: Members of the foundation have met with elementary school principals in this Duchess County district. There is a need for after-school programs for both students and adults, where classes on parenting, English as a Second Language and youth programs would be available.
A native of Sacramento, CA, Ascienzo was the son of an Air Force career father. He eventually moved to the Kingston area and attended school there before going on to college at SUNY’s University at Albany. A former pitcher, he said he is a UAlbany Hall of Fame athlete. He still works out at the gym every day.
The ambassadors he has selected are Red Hook alumni range from college students to professionals. They live and work on the West Coast, in Tucson, Philadelphia, Boston and beyond. Their role with the foundation is to advocate for causes they are involved in, and then apply for grants to help fund them. Many programs nationwide have been weakened by federal and state budget cuts.
The first round of grant applications will be considered this fall by the foundation’s board of directors, he said.
A single man, Ascienzo said he has no children of his own, but says, “All the ones who’ve graduated from Red Hook are classified as mine,”
This year, he has been teaching a slightly reduced position in his math classes in order to care for his father, 97, and his mom, 90.
“I need to be there for them when they need me,‘ he said.
The foundation made itself known last year with an introductory dinner and some outright donations to a literacy nonprofit and a bakery in Maryland that employs people with disabilities.
In accordance with 5013c requirement, he said the foundation will not do any fundraising its first year, although donations can be accepted.
“After that, we’ll decide how to proceed,” he said.
“I’m definitely in a different place. I feel like I’m pledging my passion.”
-- Liza Frenette
(Nick Ascienzo is a member of Red Hook FA)