Gaudreau family unveils new playground at a school they’ve long called home: ‘I love how it’s in honor of the boys’
Over the last year, Jane Gaudreau turned the death of her sons, Johnny and Matthew, into purpose by transforming the playground at Archbishop Damiano, a South Jersey special education school where she and her family have worked for three generations.
The Gaudreau family has been connected to Archbishop Damiano School for over 50 years, and on Thursday, Jane Gaudreau completed a yearlong project that honors her late sons and carries the Gaudreaus’ service to the school into the future.
Standing next to a sign that read “Gaudreau Brothers’ Wings of Hopes and Chrysalis Corner,” Gaudreau cut a thick yellow ribbon to celebrate the opening of Archbishop Damiano’s new adaptive playground, which will serve the special education school’s approximately 135 students.
“I love how it’s in honor of the boys,” Gaudreau said. “Just to have John and Matty’s legacy continue, it just means so much to all of us. And John and Matty loved children. They did so much with children that this is just perfect. And I know they must be so proud of the 5K committee and everyone who contributed to the playground.”
In August 2024, Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau were struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver while biking near their family’s home in Salem County. Johnny, a seven-time NHL All-Star and father of three, was 31. Matthew, whose wife, Madeline, gave birth to the couple’s first son five months later, was 29.
» READ MORE: Jane Gaudreau needed a project after the loss of her two sons. She found one in the Gaudreau Family 5K.
“It’s amazing to look at this playground and stand back and watch and see that there’s something for every child,” said Michele McCloskey, the executive director and principal of Archbishop Damiano School. “Our prior playground did not have that. There were some limitations, and there were barriers. But this is a place where there are no barriers.
“And it was never the intention to arrive here through tragedy. But it’s even more touching that we turned tragedy into something so incredibly beautiful and meaningful for so many students of today and years to come.”
The playground has been in the works for over a year, and the primary funding came from the Gaudreau Family 5K, which raised over $500,000. Jane Gaudreau was the driving force behind the event, a project she began to help fill the void left by her sons’ deaths.
“We had no idea that there were so many people in the community, in the hockey world, that loved John and Matty and our family so much that came out to the 5K and reached out,” she said. “We were able to collect and fundraise enough money for the entire playground. The school means so much to my family. It’s just like home to us because we’re always here.”
The Gaudreau family’s connection to the school, located in Westville, Gloucester County, began in 1972 when Jane Gaudreau’s brother, Ricky Lloyd, was enrolled there at 9 years old. Her mother, Marie Lloyd, started as a volunteer before taking a full-time job, and worked there for 44 years.
Since, generations of Gaudreaus have spent time serving students at Archbishop Damiano. Jane Gaudreau followed her mother’s footsteps, first volunteering and then working full-time at the school, where she has also been for over 40 years. Her oldest daughter, Kristen Venello, has worked there for 20.
» READ MORE: Johnny Gaudreau’s dream was to be an Olympian. His family lived it for him, in a moment fit for a ‘movie.’
The hockey-playing brothers left their mark as well, long before their name was on the school’s playground. All of the Gaudreau children volunteered there, including Matthew and Johnny when they were students at Gloucester Catholic High School. Johnny continued to help the school during his time in the NHL. Following his 2023 All-Star game performance, he donated the $10,000 he won for scoring a hat trick to the school.
“I remember one time I came in, and my mom said, ‘You have to see this. They’ve been doing this all week,’” Jane Gaudreau said. “They had brought these spatulas, and they had a piece of tin foil — and they were playing hockey. And they had the students playing hockey with them and everybody was out there. And my mom said, ‘We haven’t done any work for the last 45 minutes.’ I was like, ‘Mom, I’m so sorry.’ And she goes, ‘No this is great for the kids. They love this.’”
Now, the kids have another reason to play outside. The new park was designed by a committee of staff members who used other playgrounds as inspiration. They then reached out to a company called General Recreation, which helped them purchase the specialized equipment to bring their vision to life over the past year.
“I’m just so pleased that we had a beautiful day,” Gaudreau said. “And I know John and Matty are looking down at us and are so proud of what everyone has done.”
» READ MORE: Johnny Gaudreau wasn’t there to make this year’s golf fundraiser the best yet — so his family did it for him
