We've come a long way

In April 2003, my brother, Joe, passed away from cancer.  One of his favorite sports to play was golf.  If he had free time, he was probably going to head out to the course.  Our family had an annual tournament called the Czarnecki Cup.  The venue would change depending on who won the previous year & it was a day for the golfers in the family to get together and play a round then have a celebratory dinner.  The year Joe passed, my brother-in-law, Mark, decided to have the tournament around Joe's birthday in October.  We invited some of his friends to join us.  It was held at Fairfax National and I think there were about 16 of us.  We had some food after the round and said we would all do it again next year.  The following year, we put a little more effort into & even came up with gifts for the golfers - I think it was shot glasses & Old Grand Dad.  Before teeing off, we all raised a glass to Joe.  Since it was also the year of my parent's 40th anniversary, we had a surprise dinner party that night after golf.  Our friends joined us for dinner & brought raffle prizes.  We raised about $350 that night and decided to donate the money to Life with Cancer.  We chose Life with Cancer because they had been extremely helpful to my family during my brother's treatment as well as my sister's which had just begun.  I won't go into all the details of each year, but this past year - in the 9th annual tournament, we raised $20,291.52!  Over the years, we have raised over $112,000 for Life with Cancer.  Today, I am reading over the paperwork to finally turn The Joey C Foundation into an official non-profit.  No more writing out two checks (one for golf & one for the charity).  I am excited that were are moving ahead with the non-profit - makes me feel all grown up :)  By the way, if you want to play this year, the tournament is scheduled for October 1st - mark your calendar & check out the Joey C website this summer for the registration information.  As always, we couldn't do it without your help - if you want to volunteer your time or money, please let me know!  

Enjoy the Super Bowl - may your team win.  Or in my case, may my boxes have the right numbers!