JMCE holds New Year’s Polar Golf Tournament

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By PETE FONTAINE While hundreds of Rhode Islanders took a brief dip into freezing waters during several of Rhode Island’s famed Plunges Sunday, there was another storied New Year’s tradition that raised a tidy sum of $720 to help children who have been stricken with cancer.

It’s officially known as the Johnston Memorial Cancer Events (JMCE) New Year’s Day Polar Golf Tournament, which was played at historic Glocester Country Club in Harmony and featured as many colorful golf get-ups as you’d find at a PGA or LPGA tournament.

“We didn’t have to brave the cold this year,” Judi Graham, who, along with her husband, David Graham, owns and operates Graham Builders in Smithfield and is a prime organizer of the event, mused about the day’s sparkling sun and unseasonably warm temperatures. “But the weather here doesn’t really matter; this is about the Hematology and Oncology Units at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.”

Equally impressive is that the JMCE, which may rank as one of Rhode Island’s top non-profits that raise money strictly for those departments as Hasbro, has donated nearly $150,000 to benefit children who are battling cancer.

The JMCE’s 2016 fundraising campaign will wind up giving Hasbro officials a check for a record $25,000 while Sunday’s Polar Golf Tournament served as the group’s official kickoff for 2017.

A total of 26 golfers who were wearing shorts and t-shirts showed up for Sunday’s tourney and were allowed to only use three clubs while playing on just three holes – No. 6, 7 and 8 – at the picturesque nine-hole layout.

“There was a blind draw to choose the winners,” Graham related. “And Anthony Marra and Dewey Uriati wound up taking home top honors.”

The two-dozen plus players – as well as people who Graham called “non-participants” – helped raise the $720.

“We would like to thank everyone who joined in and donated to our first (JMCE) event of the year,” said Graham. “We’ll be back on the golf course on May 6 at Connecticut National Golf Club in Putnam, Connecticut, but get your reservations in early, that tourney is always a sellout.”

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