Donate Today

CJ Cronin Mentorship Program

This year, we are proud to launch a pilot internship initiative: The CJ Cronin Memorial Mentorship Program.

Created with one powerful goal in mind—to bridge the gap between mental health awareness and youth athletics—this program places emerging professionals in hands-on mentorship roles embedded directly within local pee-wee and high school sports teams

These trained interns will show up where it matters most: on the sidelines, in locker rooms, at practices, and in the everyday moments that shape young athletes’ lives. While athletics build resilience, teamwork, and discipline, they can also bring pressure and unseen challenges. By integrating caring mentors into these environments, we are creating safe spaces where young athletes feel heard, supported, and empowered.

We are incredibly grateful to have received Letters of Support from local colleges who will be providing interns, as well as from pee-wee and high school teams welcoming these mentors into their athletic communities.

About CJ

CJ was a junior at Northeastern University in Boston, majoring in Marketing and minoring in film. He was so loved and an incredibly thoughtful and creative person who touched many lives with his kindness, compassion and positivity.

One of CJ’s biggest loves was comedy. He loved to make friends, family and even strangers laugh, performing stand-up comedy at Northeastern as well as open mic nights in Boston. CJ’s other love was playing sports. He played sports year-round growing up and was a 3-sport varsity athlete in high school who was being recruited to play college football.

Unfortunately, CJ’s athletic career was severely impacted when he tore his ACL and meniscus on Senior Night for football. This injury was very challenging for CJ as he missed being able to play sports for nearly his entire senior year and the injury forced him to make the decision not to pursue playing football in college. Things began to look up as CJ worked hard to rehab his knee that year and was very excited to be accepted to his dream school, Northeastern University the next fall.

He was even able to play basketball for the University of Glasgow while studying abroad in Scotland. However, CJ suffered another setback the following summer when he tore his meniscus again. This began what would become a number of frustrating years for CJ during the remainder of college as he endured multiple surgeries and lengthy knee rehabs. As college progressed, just being able to enjoy a simple game of pickup basketball with his friends or going for a jog was no longer an option for CJ and it weighed on him more than anyone could have imagined.

As parents, dealing with the tragic unimaginable loss of a child forces some very deep reflection on how this all came to be. We have so many unanswered questions that eat away at us which may never be answered but two things are clear. First, mental health is just as important as physical health and the two are interconnected. Second, as a society, we cannot dismiss mental health challenges as some other family’s problem. To us and everyone around him, CJ was just a typical kid. He did face ongoing struggles due to his recurring injuries but he was also just navigating the “normal” challenges that any other teenager/college student faces.

If CJ needed another outlet it’s very likely that many other kids out there do too. We believe that kids can benefit from having another support system beyond parents, coaches and teachers to lean on in order to help foster mental well-being. For this reason, we are beyond grateful to see the establishment of the CJ Cronin Memorial Mentorship Program. The pain of losing CJ will never fade, but we can take some solace in knowing that this program will carry on his spirit and legacy by making a lasting, positive difference in the lives of countless youth and young adults.

Application