This club has raised $74,000 to help TBBCF fund breast cancer research
By Ellyn Santiago
The Great Neck Country Club Women’s Association has raised more than $74,000 over the last eight years for the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation at their yearly golf tournament.
And deservedly so. In 2017 it was inducted into the TBBCF 27th Mile Club, a designation given to those who go “above and beyond” in their efforts to raise money for breast cancer research.
Year after year, the amount of money raised by the GNCC Women’s Association has increased. In 2021, the Association raised $10,000, no small feat during a pandemic! The next year, in 2022, the group raised $12,000. And this year, some $14,000 was raised for TBBCF.
A little history
When Waterford’s Great Neck Country Club’s annual golf tournament began, the course was then known as the New London Country Club. The money raised was earmarked for the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In 2010, Mike Morin, a country club member and a founding member of the TBBCF Scientific Advisory Board, spoke to the association about TBBCF. He explained that the New London-based foundation, named after a young mother of three from Old Saybrook who died from breast cancer, gives 100 percent of the money raised by groups such as this association, directly to research. TBBCF awards at least three $100,000 grants each year to young doctors and researchers looking for a cure for cancer and better ways to treat the disease.
The women immediately changed their allegiance to their local foundation.
Heather Vigneau, Chair of the GNCC Women’s Association, said she participates because she went to high school with Terri Brodeur.
Vigneau was joined this year by co-chairs Maureen Butler, Margrette Pasteryak and Carole Capodiece for the annual event, which was very well-attended with over 90 golfers.
TBBCF is so grateful for the support as we all have the same goal: finding a cure.