For Bar Mitzvah, Sudbury Youth Giving Back To Yoshitaka Ando

SUDBURY, MA — Former Lincoln-Subdury High School athletic trainer Yoshitaka Ando helped Jesse Rich heal. And now Rich is trying to return the favor.

Ahead of his May 2021 Bar Mitzvah, Rich, who plays goalie on two local hockey teams, is raising money for Ando's family. The beloved trainer worked with local student-athletes for 33 years before he died last December of esophageal cancer.

Rich is collecting pledges and donations to help send Ando's four children to college. Rich will be raising money through Dec. 15 with the goal of collecting enough for all of Ando's children.

"I plan to work very hard these next three months to make a lot of saves because I know I’m not only trying to help my team win our games, but I’m also giving back to the Ando family," he said in his fundraising appeal. Rich plays for the Northstar Hockey Club and the South Shore Kings Elite.

Ando, a Marlborough resident, died on Dec. 2, his family said. He came to Massachusetts from Japan at age 15 in 1978 and graduated from Franklin High School. After graduating from Bridgewater State, where he played football, he got a job as an athletic trainer at Lincoln-Sudbury in 1987.