Lucy’s Cause: Instructor and students fight cystic fibrosis

At 10 months old, Lucy Saladino was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. It causes the body to produce unusually thick mucus which can lead to life-threatening lung infections. It also makes it hard for the body to digest and absorb food.

While battling the disease her entire life, Saladino still played soccer, loved to shop and was an honor roll student at Mills E. Godwin High School. She died in February at the age of 17.

Lucy was the daughter of Christopher Saladino, an instructor at VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Beginning three years ago, the Saladino family has held an annual spaghetti dinner in her honor. The proceeds go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Starting this year, some of the money will go to the Lucy Saladino Memorial Scholarship, which will be given to a student at Mills E. Godwin.

“The idea was from my daughter Lucy. She said, ‘I want to do something,’ ” Christopher Saladino said.

Lucy’s idea became the annual spaghetti dinner.

“We had every intention of doing it again this year, and then her situation was dramatically complicated in November. She got very sick, and then she died in February,” Christopher Saladino said.

“We had to decide, were we going to do it again? We decided yes, that’s what she would have wanted.”

More than 250 people attended an event hosted by the Saladinos Saturday. Food for the event was donated by Outback Steakhouse, Chick-fil-A, Ukrops, Costco and the Saladino family.

Over the years, many students have attended these dinners. One of them was Stephen Straus, the vice chair of the Student Government Association Senate. Straus decided VCU should hold its own spaghetti dinner, and donate the money to the scholarship.

“I wanted to do one on campus because I know a lot of students don’t have access to cars,” Straus said.

VCU will have an additional spaghetti dinner on Wednesday, sponsored by the SGA and the Wilder School.

“The SGA has in the past held its end of the year banquet at a hotel like the Omni,” Straus stated in an e-mail. “Instead of using the money to hold our banquet off-campus, the SGA decided to hold the banquet on campus and use the money toward hosting a spaghetti dinner to raise money for the Lucy Saladino Memorial Scholarship. A lot of members of the SGA have had Saladino as a professor and have a lot of respect and admiration for him.”

Emily Mazich, a political science major, has taken four classes taught by Saladino, and said he’s one of her favorite teachers.

“He’s really laid back. He’ll just sit and put his feet up on the desk and start lecturing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look at his notes; he always just lectures from stuff that he knows,” Mazich said.

Straus said, “He’s one of the best professors here at VCU. He’s a really busy guy, but he always takes time for students, and he’s a really great guy.”

Straus said he hopes VCU’s dinner will become an annual event to honor Lucy.

“I tell people she was not an amazing person
in that she did things that other people didn’t do,” Saladino said. “She was amazing in that she did things that everyone else does as well or better than they did on half a lung.”

VCU’s Lucy Saladino Memorial Scholarship Dinner will take place Wednesday April 29 at 5 p.m., 6:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on the first floor of Shafer Court Dining Center in Rodney’s. Tickets are $10, and are on sale at Break Point Games room in the University Student Commons and at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. The dinner will consist of spaghetti with marinara, meatballs, garlic bread, salad, dessert and beverages.