Golf tourney to be spread over five courses
On June 18, a golf tournament held on five different courses in Massachusetts and Connecticut will remember Jeffery Vinick, an 18-year-old, three-sport varsity athlete who, 25 years ago, lost his life to cancer. Jeffrey lived in Longmeadow, Mass. and excelled at soccer, basketball and baseball. The Jimmy Fund Golf Tournament / Jeffrey Vinick Memorial will raise money for cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund.
Michael Vinick, Jeffery's younger brother and a resident of Suffield, Conn., is the lead chairman of the tournament and oversees a committee of 40 volunteers. The Jimmy Fund Golf Tournament / Jeffrey Vinick Memorial expects more than 600 golfers to play on five different courses: Crest View Country Club in Agawam, Mass.; The Orchards Golf Course in South Hadley, Mass.; The Ranch Golf Club in Southwick, Mass.; Twin Hills Country Club in Longmeadow, Mass.; and Wintonbury Hills Golf Course in Bloomfield, Conn. Of the 160 tournaments that make up Jimmy Fund Golf, The Jimmy Fund Golf Tournament / Jeffrey Vinick Memorial has the largest number of players; no other needs five courses to accommodate the hundreds of golfers who want to participate. The tournament expects to raise $500,000, bringing its lifetime Jimmy Fund contribution to more than $6 million dollars.
"You can never do enough, but the idea is to raise the money necessary so people don't have to go through what Jeff went through," says Michael Vinick. "Taking something negative and making it positive, that's the kind of person he was." Jeffrey graduated from Longmeadow High School in 1981 and attended Springfield College for a few months before he passed away in March of 1982. A year later, the western Mass. tournament was renamed in Jeffrey's honor.
The Jimmy Fund Golf Tournament / Jeffrey Vinick Memorial provides lunch and a catered dinner by Max's Restaurant Group at the Basketball Hall of Fame, which will feature CBS Sports anchor Billy Packer as the keynote speaker. A silent auction and raffle will showcase luxury items including round trip airline tickets, trips to Saint Kitts and Ireland, luxury box seats at Fenway Park, reserve wine cellar items and sports memorabilia.
To learn more about becoming a sponsor, register to play, or make a donation, call Michael Vinick at 734-8368 or visit www.vinick.kintera.org
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