GOLF FUNDRAISER I FEATURE
Mario DeLisi’s tournament is huge support for HopeSpring.
MARIO DELISI didn’t know his wife would one day fight the disease that had been motivating his keen fundraising efforts.
But when Irene DeLisi was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 – and fought it successfully – Mario learned firsthand about the need for accurate information and emotional support.
And he learned even more about the invaluable work HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre in Kitchener does with families affected by cancer. Mario was already committed. Then it became personal. Today, after 17 years of fundraising, the DeLisi and Associates Drive for Hope Invitational golf tournament has raised a total of $2.37 million for HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre.
The 18th annual tournament will be held June 19 at Grey Silo Golf Course in Waterloo.
“I find it very rewarding to do something in the community locally, and I think it’s an incredibly worthwhile cause,” says DeLisi, a certified financial planner who heads DeLisi and Associates.
DeLisi recalls a moment many years ago that inspired him to do more volunteer work, leading him eventually to take charge of the fundraiser golf tournament.
A friend with the Sunshine Foundation, a national charity that grants wishes to children with severe physical disabilities or lifethreatening illnesses, asked DeLisi to assist him one early morning at the Toronto airport. >>
>> “My first experience was to lift children out of their wheelchairs onto a plane to go to Walt Disney World,” he says. He saw the children’s happiness and “that was it. That started me off on fundraising.”
Gerard Seguin, HopeSpring’s executive director, is grateful for DeLisi’s hard work and commitment to a centre that helps more than 1,000 people in a year and offers more than 7,000 hours of programs.
“He’s just a terrific supporter. It’s quite remarkable,” Seguin says. The golf tournament is the largest single fundraiser for HopeSpring, which has an annual operating budget of $800,000 to $900,000.
And the tournament keeps going year after year with no sign of stopping.
“Most events have a two-to-three, maybe 10-year life. . . . To do this for 18 years in a row is an accomplishment,” Seguin says.
“And for the most part, he runs it all on his own.”
In 1997, DeLisi, a sincere man with seemingly limitless energy, volunteered to take over a small, charitable golf tournament sponsored by Manulife Financial that raised money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
“I’m an avid golfer and I thought we could turn it into something bigger,” he says.
He threw himself into the project and the DeLisi and Associates Drive for Hope Invitational golf tournament was launched as a fundraiser for HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre.
The tournament is dedicated to the memory of DeLisi’s friend, Dan Blasutti, a popular, former Manulife Financial assistant vice-president and a founding member of HopeSpring.
Blasutti, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1992, wrote a journal during his illness that was later published and called Spiritual Warrior. He died in October 1995, before HopeSpring opened to the public.
“He was such a giving person. He thought people should have a local support centre,” DeLisi says.
In its first year, the Drive for Hope golf tournament raised $16,000 for HopeSpring.
Now the one-day event at Grey Silo brings in about $200,000 a year. “It makes me feel great,” DeLisi says. Most of the 130 golfers continue to be Manulife employees, retirees and other people connected to the company.
“I have a very loyal following in this tournament,” DeLisi says. “They come back every year to play.” In fact, there’s a waiting list of about 36 people who would like to participate in the invitational event.
Charities in other communities approach DeLisi every year for advice on how to duplicate his efforts.
“I help them with how to increase their funds,” he says. “There isn’t a secret to raising money. Just know what to do and be persistent. Make people feel part of the event. Then everyone is proud.” There’s a lot of cheering when the cheque is presented to HopeSpring on tournament day, he says. For the entire year leading up to the tournament, DeLisi pores over sale flyers to find top-quality prizes like electronics or golf equipment; then heads out to buy each item. Everyone gets a prize.
“I start the week after the tournament ends,” he says. “He’ll get up Boxing Day and head out when stores are open to get the best deals,” Irene says, smiling. Mario makes telephone calls and writes letters to corporate sponsors. He and Irene decide on the dinner menu. When tournament day approaches, Mario gets up early in the morning to set up the elaborate prize table himself.
“After so many years, it’s a well-oiled machine,” he says. A four-person committee helps with communication and raising money. Bruce Gordon, longtime sponsor of the tournament’s prize table and chairman of the board of Manulife Bank and Manulife Trust, says his friend’s professionalism and thorough nature go a long way to ensuring the event’s success.
“Everything he does, whether it’s business or a golf game, he pays attention to it. He focuses on it. He’s passionate about it. He gets totally involved in things that interest
him and excite him,” says Gordon, who has known DeLisi for 15 years. Gordon, who lost his 33-year-old son, David, to cancer, says the recognition of HopeSpring’s value to families in the community also motivates Manulife employees to take part in the tournament year after year. “It became important to me to be out there with friends and colleagues raising money for a local cause,” Gordon says.
“It is unusual for a golf tournament to run this long and I think it’s very unusual for a local golf tournament to raise that amount of money,” he says.
DeLisi says his wife’s cancer treatment brought home to him how important it is to be able to share concerns with someone and find trustworthy information. About 15 years ago, Irene underwent two surgeries, six months of chemotherapy in Kitchener and one month of radiation in London. The couple’s two children were then eight and 10 years old. Mario did research, spoke to doctors, helped his wife focus on fighting the disease.
“I wanted her to think positive and try to get better,” he says. Mario says he was able to seek help from a friend who was then HopeSpring’s executive director. “We saw the value of support,” Mario says. “A living, breathing source far outweighs the frantic searching through books and the Internet,” he later wrote in a note describing his tournament involvement.
Irene recovered. Then, four years ago, after their children had grown up, she began volunteering at HopeSpring. She helps women choose a wig or get fitted for a post-mastectomy camisole.
“I’m still here and I’m grateful,” Irene says. “My main goal is to try to help women feel happier.”
It’s where she’s most useful, she says. And she understands what women are going through. “I let them know that they can ask questions. I’m better at propping people >>
>> up than asking for money” for a fundraiser, she says.
“My heart swells when I see women look so much better.
“I have had older European ladies come in and they squeeze my hand. I have a Polish background. If Ukrainian women come in and squeeze my hand and hug me, there’s a connection,” she says.
“When she tells of some of the comments and reactions from people who are trying to come to grips with their diagnosis, she can bring a bunch of us guys to tears,” Mario says.
On a day in March when the snow banks outside were still high, 60 pink, red and yellow roses provided splashes of colour in the living room and kitchen of the couple’s gracious Kitchener home.
Pink is Irene’s favourite colour. The roses were Mario’s present to mark her 60th birthday.
“You don’t complain about getting older because too many are denied that privilege,” Irene says.
The couple like to travel and their home is decorated with mementoes from the many countries they’ve visited – masks from Bali, Bora Bora, Hawaii and Australia are on the wall in the living room.
“We travel extensively. We see the world because there are no guarantees in life,” Mario says.
On another wall is a photograph of the couple on a Maui beach where they renewed their wedding vows and danced to celebrate their 25th anniversary. “It was a special day,” Mario says. They were married in Montreal, where they both worked before moving to Kitchener in 1983.
They plan to visit Hong Kong again to see their daughter, Lisa, 25, who lives there. Nicholas, 27, lives in Toronto.
It’s important to celebrate events; New Year’s Eve in 2000 was especially memorable. “It was a big deal because I was here. I was able to celebrate,” Irene says.
The couple’s philanthropy doesn’t end with the golf tournament. They love animals, and donate to the humane society. They give to the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
They also sponsor three children in Thailand, and have sponsored other children there until the children became adults and were able to support themselves.
“We have seen our own children grow and become responsible citizens, and it gives us pleasure to know we can assist in providing that success to others,” Irene says.
It gives them particular pleasure to know that the DeLisi and Associates Drive for Hope benefits so many local families and involves community members who are unfailingly generous.
“It has become a family,” Mario says. “I take great pride in our success over the years, and I have friends who are there yearly to offer a donation, an auction item, or their time, which culminates in the cheque presentation.
“We have raised $2.37 million for HopeSpring, which paid the mortgage on their two initial locations in Waterloo and Cambridge and has funded a great many programs, all of which are free to members.
“When we are told how many families are helped, how can you turn away?”