Middletown High School's Project Graduation is an alcohol and drug-free party started several years ago by Christine LaRosa, a force of nature and former Spanish teacher who died suddenly in 2007. The party lives on, offering students an amazing, fun last night to spend with their friends, in their school.
Dan LaRosa, Christine’s widower, is a fixture in the entertainment industry and a nationally-recognized leader in the world of stage hypnosis. He is teaming up with Project Grad and doing a show at MHS on March 28 at 7 p.m. to help raise money for the program his late wife began. These students were Christine’s first passion.
Middletown Patch presents this touching Q&A with Dan, ahead of his March 28 show.
Middletown Patch: Give me a sense of how important her MHS students, or her "bebes," and being a part of their graduation was for Christine.
Dan LaRosa: I once asked Chris what she would be willing to die for. Without hesitation, she said for any of her students. We were in Tijuana in the garbage dump where she taught every summer in the school that she helped open. No running water or toilets (filthy outhouses and few of those). No electricity. Folks cooked on fires; they got their water from the water truck that came every day.
Christine would take the kids to the beach (cold water ocean) so the kids could bathe. Sometimes she would bring them over the border (this was before 9/11) to the movies (and the stares of the patrons) and treat them to popcorn and a movie. Shanty huts built from thrown-out, discarded lumber, metal, scrap. The garbage dump of Tijuana became the home for these folks. The city would hard pack sand over the refuse, pack it down and allow the squatters to build their homes.
The kids and the parents LOVED her…. When we got there the first day, the kids ran to her shouting her name, ‘Cristina!’
When we visited the families in their shanties, they would offer us whatever little food they had and Chris said not to refuse so as not to offend.
Middletown Patch: Is this the first time you'll be helping out or were you involved while Christine was as well?
Dan LaRosa: Christine used to say that she found me in the yellow pages when she was looking for a hypnotist for her project grad celebration.
The first time I saw her I told my assistant that I was going to marry her. Until that time everything was handled on the phone so I didn’t know who she was. My assistant asked what attracted me to her. I saw how everyone wanted her attention, wanted to be near her. I thought she had the greatest spirit I’d ever met. I still believe that.
So, the next day (after the first project grad party that I did for her), I called her house (there was a male voice on the answering machine — her brother) and I left a message for her to call me about something “important.” When there was no answer, I assumed the male voice was her husband. Christine had gone right from the end of the party at 6 a.m. to the airport to fly to California and to cross into TJ.
When she called in January to book the next graduation party, I suggested a fundraiser. She didn’t raise enough money to pay my fee and it’s the only time…ever…. That I saw disappointment in her eyes. Maybe even tears…. Because she lost her “bebe’s” money. I was delighted because I told her I would come back next month for free and that she would pack the place because everybody loved the show. She was impressed, but at the end of the night she said, “You won’t have to come back. We made $43.” I was disappointed. So, I called her the next week, asked her on a date, and we were married two years later.
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Middletown Patch: Give me a sense of the legacy you see that she has left at MHS. I am sure people have shared such wonderful stories with you.
Dan LaRosa: Enough stories to write a book. (Interested?) Here are two of my favorites:
- A man in his forties came to visit 3 months after she had passed. He told me how much he loved Chris. Nothing new there. He told me that as a freshman he was intimated by her. She had a way of scaring freshmen and would proudly say on the first day of school that they thought her a witch. I remember asking how long she thought it would be before they loved her. She said …. Soon. This man was intimated by her, hated being in her class, hated Spanish until about the third or fourth class. He hated her because she would only speak Spanish in school. And, I asked him, 'what happened?' He said in the class that changed his life he became interested in the language and the similarities to English and the stories behind the words. Then, he became fascinated with the language because she made it fascinating. So, I asked what he ended up doing with his life. He replied that he had just retired from Navy intelligence as an interpreter of Spanish.
- At the wake held at the old high school around 9 o’clock, they put a little barricade between our family and the viewing line because folks had waited a long time to get into the school where the wake was held and they wanted to offer condolences but the funeral director felt they had to keep the line moving. One woman asked to speak with me and she told me this story: Her son was a troubled student. Chris helped him and inspired him to stay in school and to make something of himself. He did. He lived in Iowa and could not come back to Connecticut but he asked his mother to let me know that he would be mailing a check to me for $1,000 to repay her for something she did for him. After he became a better student/person, she made note that he hadn’t signed up for the Europe trip though he expressed interest in going. She paid for his trip and never asked for the money back. In the spirit of “pay it forward,” I suggested he do just that.
There are dozens of stories that I personally know from former students. Those who considered her their second mother; some who were suicidal who were given hope and still are in touch with me; some who became teachers (Spanish, of course) because of her influence.
Middletown Patch: This will be six years since her passing. What makes the time right now to perform for Project Grad?
Dan LaRosa: Everywhere I go in this town and in colleges where I’ve performed or in other high schools where former students now teach, I am always being told how much everybody loves her and misses her. We had one show the year after she passed; it was difficult to perform anywhere but especially there. But Ellen Ornato was a good friend to both of us and she is the one who suggested that the time is right. I agree. Project Graduation needs to raise an incredible amount of money to fund the celebration and hopefully we will be a major part of the fundraising.
Middletown Patch: If Christine were here today, what do you see her doing?
Dan LaRosa: She never wanted to retire from teaching. If she couldn’t teach in Middletown, we wanted to go to South America where she would teach English and Spanish in one of the schools there. Before we met, it was her ambition to serve the poor in third-world countries.
Middletown Patch: Tell me a little about the program you envision for Project Grad. How does it differ from your regular shows?
Dan LaRosa: This will be a family friendly comedy hypnosis show. Christine used to say that this is a show that young and old alike can enjoy because it’s comedy, mystery, and audience participation all in one. It’s also clean and inspiring to many — but especially to students.