Memorial Golf Tournament raises $90,000 for Cancer Research

A Thank You from Larry Rybacki

Dear Extended SIGMA Family,

The 2020 Rybacki Memorial Golf Tournament is in the books and despite COVID-19 we were able to raise a record $90,000 for cancer research. This year’s main recipient will be Dr. Jennifer Veneris who is head of Gynecologic Cancer Research in adolescents and young women at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The funds are being raised in honor of our friend Meghan Brescia, who is gallantly fighting uterine cancer and has been for over eight months.

Despite the pandemic, the day of the tournament was perfect and we had 118 golfers playing. Ours was the largest tournament The Haven has hosted all year as the restrictions in Massachusetts to hold tournaments are strictly observed. We had to have a couple of groups tee off in the morning because of the limit on players starting at the same time. But, one really interesting fact is that while we were playing in Massachusetts, the Team at Spec  Rubber in Birmingham, Alabama and headed by Steven Smith had their own tournament in Birmingham and raised an additional $1500 for The Jimmy Fund!

All in all, the day was very emotional for me. Family and friends stepped to the plate, and true to form, The Water Works Industry came through with flying colors. As I near the end of my career, I feel so blessed to have spent over 40 years with the finest group of people anyone could imagine. The Tournament Sponsors play such a key role in raising money for our event (we are well over $1 million donated now) and in large part this is thanks to members of The Water Industry.  Companies like: Hayes Pipe & Supply, Romac Industries, Ferguson Waterworks, American Flow Control / American Ductile Iron Pipe, McWane Ductile, Mueller Water Products, E. J. Prescott, C.I. Thornburg, Western Water Works, Mid-American Water, H.D. Fowler, Putnam Pipe, HR Prescott & Sons, U.S. Pipe, Warwick Winwater Works, Water Works Suppliers of Puerto Rico, Brent Material Company, Wamco of Canada, McLennan Sales, Campbell Foundry, and many individuals who were a big part of our Industry have generously supported our event for many years. People like Harry Hornish, Jerry Webb, Darrin Anderson, Ed Allred, Paul Leonard, Pat Sullivan, Mike Clingenpeel, and Scott Ellis were all sponsors and many more were Tee & Green sponsors.

When I talk to people about their particular industries such as High Tech, Biomedical, Environmental, etc, I feel like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. “There is no place like home” and home, for me, has been our industry for the better part of my. As I reflect back on these 40 years, I am so very proud of it!!

As for the golf, we had four divisions and all were won suspiciously with an inordinate amount of cheating by all groups, especially the group of SIGMA’s Mike Roy, Sue Van Hook, plus Warwick Winwater’s Tim Whall and Campbell Foundry’s Ken Farrelly. They used the “Square Root” method to post their score, but win they did!

With 42 people unable to attend because of travel restrictions I never imagined in my wildest dreams that we would have such a successful tournament. My wife Chris and I didn’t know whether we would be able to have the tournament as late as four weeks prior, but The Haven really came through for us, as did my able-bodied assistant, Cindy Dayotas. Thank you Waterworks Industry and thank you SIGMA family for making every tournament special.

Larry