When Lynn Riordan established Matt’s Mission Foundation in honor of her son seven years ago, she couldn’t conceive the huge impact the non-profit would have on North Branford. And while some may not be able to imagine Matt’s Mission continuing without Riordan’s energy to guide it, she said it’s time for her to retire from her role.

On Sunday, May 22, at the seventh annual Matt’s Mission 5K Road Race at North Branford High School (NBHS), Riordan wraps up her hands-on work directing Matt’s Mission’s many community good works. Next year, Matt’s Mission 5K will go on, led by a new, NBHS/community based committee, with proceeds to benefit NBHS athletics. In addition, Matthew Picciuto scholarships will continue to assist graduating NBHS seniors through 2023 and Riordan will keep her connection with Matt’s Mission as a board member and treasurer.

“I just felt, after seven years, it was just time for me to step aside and not end Matt’s Mission entirely, but take a different direction with it,” said Riordan. “So instead of helping people within the community, I would like to have the high school take over the 5K Road Race, and all the funds will go to benefit the athletic department at the high school. I just feel that sports keeps a lot of children out of trouble, and a race is an athletic event. Matt was a big sports fan, so it just made sense to me. I just feel like he would want it.”

Seven years ago, on May 23, 2009, Matthew died in a car accident at age 18, just weeks away from graduating from NBHS. Matthew’s yearbook quote included a desire to “make a difference.” Riordan took that message and established Matt’s Mission to help North Branford students in need and to educate the public on responsible driving.

From the time the non-profit began, overwhelming support from the community, sponsors, and organizations, combined with Riordan’s legendary energy, helped Matt’s Mission mushroom into one of the town’s most responsive, well-known and nimble fundraising organizations, supporting efforts well beyond its original mission.

That type of support extends even to Riordan’s last time heading up Matt’s Mission 5K on May 22. Two weeks ago, Superintendent of Schools Scott Schoonmaker reached out to Matt’s Mission shortly after the Herassme family experienced the loss of Northford mom and wife Donna Herassme on May 5.

“He wanted to know how I felt about turning this last race that I’m fully in charge of into an event to benefit the Herassme family. So instantly, I got my excitement going,” said Riordan, who began reaching out to a large network of community supporters.

The Herassme family has been invited to Matt’s Mission 5k on May 22 (the race starts at 9:30 a.m.; post-race party begins at 10:30 a.m.) and the community is encouraged to come out and contribute to a prize-filled raffle that’s been organized to raise money to help the family (see related story, “Love for Donna”). The event will also hold a moment of silence to honor Donna Herassme’s memory.

“So the race is for Matt’s Mission, but we’re also embracing the family and hoping it’s a huge community turnout,” said Riordan.

That type of response is what so many in North Branford have come to expect from Matt’s Mission and is much different from Riordan’s original goal for the non-profit.

“My initial goal was just to raise enough money to award two scholarships each year until my youngest daughter, Mea, graduates from NBHS in 2023,” said Riordan.

A Growing Mission

Like the exponential growth and expanded reach of Matt’s Mission, the number of annual Matthew Picciuto scholarships quickly grew from assisting two graduates to helping seven NBHS graduates each June.

“Every scholarship we’ve given out has always been $1,000, and [in 2013] we gave out eight, so we’ve given away a lot of money,” said Riordan.

The eighth scholarship in 2013 was given to honor the tragic loss of a young community member that year. By that time, Matt’s Mission had given away $29,000 in scholarships. By 2014, when Riordan was named a Shore Publishing Beacon Award winner for her contributions to the betterment of the community (she was a 2011 Person of the Week as well), Matt’s Mission had given away more than $200,000 to support many community needs. Today, the total contributed in North Branford has climbed to $250,000.

In 2015, Riordan acted on one of the recurring needs reaching Matt’s Mission: a growing call for supplies of supplemental food for residents. Together with Frank Forgione, Riordan worked to co-found Food Pantry of North Branford. The non-profit opened its doors in Northford in June 2016, with help of a $10,000 donation from Matt’s Mission. In less than a year’s time the program has grown rapidly.

“It’s still growing. Last I heard, there were 130 families registered and over 350 people who receive groceries [monthly],” said Riordan. “Yet there were so many people who did not feel there was a need. I just knew, from Matt’s Mission work, that there was.”

The words “last I heard” are telling because, unlike her intricate involvement with Matt’s Mission, Riordan notes Food Pantry of North Branford operates on a 365-day-a-year basis thanks to its volunteer base.

“The fantastic thing about that organization is I don’t have to be there all the time,” said Riordan, who will remain affiliated with the pantry board. “The volunteer base there is fantastic and amazing. Yes, I can raise funds for it, but I don’t have do the day-in, day-out work. I knew from the get-go that running the pantry was going to be a huge commitment and if we didn’t have the volunteers, we would fall. I can raise funds all day long—I just can’t do what those volunteers do, because I’m not available.”

For the past seven years, Riordan’s balanced her extraordinary community efforts with her work as a radiation oncology nurse and raising her family, including daughters Elise (22), Alexa (20), and Mea (10). Just as she felt guided to establish Matt’s Mission, Riordan now feels guided to make this change in her connection with the organization.

“It’s been seven years since he died; this is the seventh race. Seven is a huge number within the Bible. I just feel it means completion, and I feel I’m being guided and directed away from what I have been doing,” said Riordan. “It served a big purpose for all those that it helped, and it served a big purpose for me. I just feel it’s time to devote my energies on the children that I still have here now, and my family.”

Riordan said she will be forever grateful to a community that kept her going when she was despondent and allowed her son to make a difference as his legacy.

Matt’s Mission 5K now draws hundreds annually to take on a scenic run through rural North Branford countrysid, but the race grew from a symbolic 18 laps around the NBHS track that Riordan organized a month after Matthew died.

“The community coming together after Matthew died, when we did those 18 laps...I don’t think people understand what that did for me,” said Riordan. “It kept me whole. They lifted me up. It was a gift, and I feel that no matter what I do, that I will never be able to repay it. It was the support that I received from total strangers [who] came forward and acknowledged Matthew’s death and showed a great deal of concern for me and my kids—I just feel no matter what I can do, I can never repay it. But that was also the reason for my drive: to pay it forward. Because if that kept me whole, then showing support through Matt’s Mission in the community, maybe it’s going to hold somebody else up. I believe that 100 percent.”

Follow Matt’s Mission 5K on Facebook for updates about race day, Sunday, May 22, at NBHS. For more information on participating in the Matt’s Mission 5K, visit www.jbsports.com.