Although the temperature outdoors was 19 degrees and falling, the talk inside the Johnston Senior Center’s multi-purpose room centered around golf and family fun days.
This was last Wednesday evening, when the Johnston Memorial Cancer Events (JMCE) – a non-profit corporation, made up of close friends and their families, that has raised $95,000 for the Oncology-Hematology Units at Hasbro Children’s Hospital – held its annual fundraising meeting for 2015.
“We’re really excited about this year,” Vin LaFazia, the former Johnston recreation director and the JMCE’s heart and soul, told more than two-dozen committee members. “We will probably go over the $100,000 mark in total donations, and that’s an awesome accomplishment in itself.”
But for people who know anything about or anyone connected with the JMCE, the closely-knit group isn’t about to slow down or rest on past performance.
“We’d like to break the $100,000 mark for the first time with a record number of tee signs [during the JCME golf tournament],” secretary-treasurer Linda LaFazia said. “They’re actually memorial signs that people purchase for only $25 to remember loved ones who have passed away battling cancer.”
The JMCE also sells business sponsor signs for the small fee of $50 for the golf tournament, which this year is scheduled to tee-off at famed Connecticut National Golf Club in Putnam, Conn., on Saturday, May 9.
People can begin entering the golf event – which is played in memory of friends Sal Gelsomino, Anna Mazzulla and Laura DeAngelis – simply by calling Linda LaFazia at 401-233-2564.
Speaking of golf, the JMCE started 2015 off with a tidy and heart-warming total of $410 as a result of a three-hole golf tournament that was played back on New Year’s Day at Gloucester Country Club.
“The players who showed up on New Year’s Day really enjoyed, and are looking forward to making bigger and better to start 2016,” JMCE Board of Directors member Judi Graham said.
But even before New Year’s Day rolls around, Gloucester Country Club – a picturesque, nine-hole layout located off Route 44 – will host a co-ed golf tournament with proceeds going to the JMCE’s ongoing efforts to aid the fight against cancer that strikes children.
The same held true for the Johnston High School Alumni Girls’ Basketball Team, which – despite a late afternoon snowstorm that caused traffic problems all over the state – netted a record-setting $1,300 for the JMCE.
As yet another example of just how much love and respect other Johnstonians have for the JMCE’s mission and membership, the annual Ricky Salzillo Memorial Game Dinner will soon have a check presentation for $2,000, another gift up from last year’s donation.
With what Vin LaFazia and JMCE chairman and recent Johnston High Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Dennis Quaranta said “is an exciting an ambitious schedule for 2015, we’re hoping to raise an all-time record donation for the two units we support at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence.”
Next up for the JMCE is the Johnston Community Center Association’s annual Beer & Wine Tasting event, which the non-profit helps staff. That event is scheduled for Wednesday, April 8 at Kelley-Gazzero VFW Post 2812 off Plainfield Street on the Johnston-Cranston line.
“If we ever get rid of the snow,” Vin LaFazia said, “we’re going to have a rather interesting Family Fun Day in June.”
Anyone who would like further information about the JMCE or is interested in joining the team should call the LaFazias at 401-233-2564 or Judi Graham at 401-497-2954.
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