Our Story

It all started with eight best friends who loved and participated in high school sports together.  

In 1985, a group of eight classmates graduated from St. Bernard’s Central Catholic High School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. After graduation, the friends went their separate ways to pursue higher education opportunities and differing career paths. However, the friends remained close over the following decades, staying in touch and reuniting for special occasions. In 2012, they began a new tradition of meeting up each year to attend an NFL game to watch their favorite team play—the New England Patriots. 

After a member of the group sadly lost a spouse to cancer in 2021, with a daughter still in college, the group began thinking about ways they could galvanize their friendship for a greater purpose. There was more that they could be doing besides just going to football games, right?  

Understanding that their collective career successes would not have been possible without the benefit of a college education, they also realized the financial strain that losing a parent during college or coming from a single-parent household could cause. The 85 Patriot Fund was thus conceived as a way to give back meaningfully to those seeking education as a means to enhance their lives, but who are facing financial challenges associated with a single-parent household.