John LaBarbera: Turning tragedy into triumph

John LaBarbera.

Courtesy Susan LaBarbera

Johnny LaBarbera, shown here with his mother, was 16 in 2005, when he collapsed from a sudden cardiac arrhythmia.

Courtesy Susan LaBarbera

• 
• 
• 

The tragedy that devastated John LaBarbera’s family 10 years ago didn’t make him the giving man that he is, but what he has done in the time since then stands as a testament to his character: taking his loss and turning it, with a formidable efficacy, into service for other people.

LaBarbera’s generous spirit and eagerness to help is well known to his friends and neighbors, but it’s the annual golf outing and luncheon fundraiser that he established to honor his son, Johnny, who died suddenly in 2005, that he is most widely known for.

“A lot of people turn inward and go negative,” said Central High School Principal Joseph Pompilio, a regular attendee at the fundraiser. “But he decided he wasn’t that guy.”

It was at Central that tragedy struck Johnny: The popular 16-year-old junior collapsed at an after-school basketball clinic on Oct. 17, 2005, despite having been given a clean bill of health just a month earlier after two open-heart surgeries.

“[LaBarbera] was always that big, loving guy,” said Tom McAleer, the Village of Valley Stream’s buildings superintendent and an Argyle Street neighbor of the LaBarberas. McAleer met LaBarbera shortly before his son’s death. The friendly neighbor that McAleer described, willing to provide any help asked of him, became something more after Johnny died.

LaBarbera’s fundraiser grew remarkably over the past decade, topping out at almost $50,000 raised at each event in its final years. October’s outing was the final one, as LaBarbera and his wife, Susan, decided to end it.

Its impact is far from finished. With nearly $300,000 in the bank, it will live on for at least the next half-century as it earns interest. The $5,000 scholarship that is awarded each year at Central High in Johnny LaBarbera’s name is one of the school’s largest. Its acronym is ICAN, which stands for integrity, character, altruist and noble. It is presented at the end of the school year to a student chosen for his or her integrity and moral character, honoring the traits Johnny was known for.

“It does my heart good that we helped so many different people at Valley Stream Central High School,” LaBarbera told the crowd at the final luncheon in October.