2024 Distiguished Alumni Award Winner Profile

Matthew Haynes — Class of ’96

Mr. Haynes is a loving husband & father, an entrepreneur, gondolier, cantor, philanthropist, community volunteer, and sometime farmer.

During his years at Ponaganset, Matthew was a member of the soccer, track, and cross-country teams as well as being a flutist in the band and a member of the school chorus. While earning a double major in history and biology at Lehigh University Matthew received the Harmon Award for excellence as a history major. He earned a tuition-free fifth year at Lehigh as part of the President’s Scholar Program. Matthew had been on the varsity crew team and now during this fifth year he was able to become an assistant coach for the women’s rowing team.

Matthew started his career as a substitute teacher at Ponaganset. He then was asked to become a permanent substitute physics teacher. But it was a part-time summer job as a gondolier in Providence, which he found as a direct result of joining the crew team while at Lehigh, that has propelled his overall career. He said the right word at the right time while looking for a summer job which allowed him to combine his rowing experience and his love of singing. Doing so eventually led to the purchase of La Gondola Providence. In addition to transforming the enterprise into one of the most recognized and beloved attractions in Providence, he has added to his fleet of gondolas and has expanded operations to Naples, FL.

Matthew is also a sponsor for the Ponaganset Education Foundation, Ponaganset music
concerts, the Ponaganset Athletic Hall of Fame fundraisers, and in Ponaganset’s
entrepreneurship classes through participation in the class Shark Tank projects.

In 2018, he and his wife, Bryna Poirier Haynes, established the LGP (La Gondola Providence)
Community Foundation . The LGP Foundation’s mission is to support the food, shelter, and
belonging needs of Providence County’s most vulnerable residents regardless of their race,
nationality, ethnicity, religious creed, or immigration status. A portion of the proceeds from
every gondola trip goes to supporting the LGPCF’s work in the community.

Matthew served on the Board of Trustees of the Libraries of Foster, is a founding member and Board member of the Foster Farmers Market, and volunteers as a cantor at St. Paul’s Church in Foster.

Gary Martinelli -– Class of ’81

Gary Martinelli was chosen as one of the 2024 Ponaganset Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA)  recipients. Gary moved to Foster in 1973 and entered Ponaganset Middle School as a 5 th grader and continued in the system to graduate from Ponaganset High School in 1981.

After graduating from Ponaganset, Gary enrolled at Becker College in Leicester, MA. He received an associate degree in 1983 then continued his education with the earning of a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education with a minor in History in 1986 at Plymouth State University in NH. Gary then returned to Rhode Island to teach at Cranston-Johnston Catholic Regional School. While teaching social studies in middle school he met his wife, Patrice.

His coaching career began in 1992 here at Ponaganset. From 1992 to 1999, Gary coached football at Ponaganset with Chris Branch and track with Eunice Hindley and Jimmy Caron. During this time, he also coached the girls’ basketball team at Scituate High School from 1992-1994. Gary then moved onto to coach the women’s basketball at Bryant College from 1994-1996. In 1996, Gary left teaching to coach the women’s basketball team at Boston University until 1998 when he came back to RI to coach basketball at Providence College from 1998-2002.

In late October 2002, he decided to come back home to Ponaganset High School and has never looked back. Gary began teaching special education and along with coaching. Since 2019 he has been the Special Education Department Chairman. He is the special education resource teacher including seniors on his caseload. Gary has been “honored” – his words – to be the class advisor to the classes of 2010, 2014, 2019 and 2023. He has been the girls’ basketball coach since 2003. In Gary’s words, “I never really left Ponaganset from the time I entered the middle school in 1973.”

One of Gary’s proudest moments is the work he has done with Unified Sports, which he helped to establish at Ponaganset. This past year was the first year he has not coached the Unified Sports team since 2010. “Special Education is my passion. It is the reason I started and stayed in education”.

The alumnus who nominated Gary Martinelli for the Distinguished Alumni Award summed up his qualifications and distinctions with this quote: “Gary has excelled at helping children with and without special needs. His dedication to all students, regardless of ability or circumstance, is evident as they make the best of their high school education toward life-long goals.”
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