Ric Saborio Memorial Scholarship Fund

“Ric was talented—he could dance, he could juggle, ride a unicycle—but he couldn’t sing, and he realized that he couldn’t make it in musical theater as he had hoped,” said Gail Saborio, his wife of 33 years. “I was always a teacher. One day he said ‘I want to do what you do—I want to love my job as much as you do’.” They took their entire savings and he went to Lesley College and got a dual masters degree in regular ed and special education. He never looked back. But the theater thing also stayed—there's no better stage than a classroom, and for 13 years, an East Greenwich classroom was Ric’s stage.

When he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013, Ric had to give up everything he loved. “We took Ric’s three favorite things: education, theater, and travel, and incorporated them into this memorial fund, which will benefit an East Greenwich student every year.”

“Ric wasn’t the smartest, he wasn’t the tallest, he wasn’t the richest, but he was the coolest—he was the Fonz. And people gravitate towards you when you’re cool. By choosing these three criteria, we’re hoping to encompass different types. I don’t want to pick the best— the high achieving student wins a lot of the awards.”

Gail thought it would just be a one-shot deal—one scholarship of $1000. “When I started getting emails with donations of hundreds of dollars, I realized that this was big—I think this could be a scholarship at the Rhode Island Foundation.” When she discovered the minimum was $10,000, she thought they would never reach that. A childhood friend came through and made up the difference.

“I just want him to not be forgotten, including by people who never knew him. I want them to know that this remarkable person walked this earth. It’s like the Say Their Names movement—there’s something to that—I want people to say his name.

“I feel blessed—isn’t it the best feeling ever to love and be loved? That's what I wish for everyone. He was so amazing —the “sunshine on my shoulders.”

Played at the memorial service for Ric in January 2022, “Sunshine on my Shoulders” by John Denver— Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry Sunshine on the water looks so lovely Sunshine almost always makes me high