The Michael DiMaria Foundation hosts its 10th annual golf outing fundraiser

The Michael DiMaria Foundation of Rockville Centre held its 10th annual golf fundraiser on July 24 at the Golf Club at Middle Bay in Oceanside.

This year’s event included 144 golfers who celebrated with an amazing day of golf and an enjoyable evening of food, drinks, baskets, raffles and prizes.

“We are so thankful for the tremendous support and generosity of the entire community in making this year’s even the most successful yet,” said Sean Sheehan, who helped organize the annual golf fundraiser.

The Michael DiMaria annual golf outing was followed by an after-party at Kasey’s Kitchen and Cocktails in Rockville Centre, where an additional 30 members of the community showed up to help raise money for scholarships that will go to two deserving students from Kellenberg Memorial High School’s boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams in his memory. 

DiMaria’s life came to a sudden end on Aug. 14, 2010, when a random act of senseless violence was responsible for the loss of a promising future that was only just beginning.

He was just starting a career in finance on Wall Street and was visiting Boston for the weekend when an argument broke out at a local establishment. During the conflict a beer mug was thrown, causing the glass to break. Glass shards went flying and one of the pieces hit DiMaria, fatally wounding the 23-year-old from Long Island. 

“In the short 23 years that Michael was here on this earth he managed to leave his mark on everyone he crossed paths with. A mark of everlasting love that endures in the hearts of everyone he knew,” Sheehan remarked. “Michael loved his family, his sister Jennifer, and all of his many, many friends. So many of these friendships began at Kellenberg Memorial High school where Michael played the sport of lacrosse. It is during that time that he affectionately became known as ‘Dimo.’ Michael was a team player on and off the field. If you were a friend of Michael’s, you were a friend for life.

The foundation was started in 2013 by longtime Rockville Centre resident, Tim Johnson Jr., in memory of his best friend Michael “Dimo” DiMaria.

The annual fundraiser began simply as a day for friends and family to get together and celebrate his life, but it has since grown to become a nonprofit that continues to make a lasting impact on the community and deserving high school students.

Johnson enlisted the help of family members including his mother, Ann Johnson, and friend, Sean Sheehan, who said the golf outing started out small but as more and more people wanted to take part, grew fast.

“I offered to help organize with Tim and as the outing grew we started to have funds left over after paying for the course and dinner,” Sheehan said. “Tim and I sat down and talked with the DiMaria family and asked if we could setup a scholarship fund in Dimo’s name.”

Together they created a nonprofit board of directors to further the foundation’s mission to provide tuition scholarships to girls and boys in need of such assistance who may exhibit a similar love of sport and service as Michael “Dimo” DiMaria did during his lifetime.

Sheehan said that Johnson reached out to the lacrosse team at Kellenberg, which put them in touch with the school administration and haven’t looked back since. To qualify for the scholarships, students from both the boys’ and girls’ teams submit an essay that is then read by the DiMaria family who selects the recipients.

He said that Rockville Centre is an amazing place to grow up, live and raise a family. “I have had that privilege and at times probably took it for granted,” he said. “But I’ve really learned about the meaning of community and the amazing one that is Rockville Centre through the Michael DiMaria Foundation.”

When the event first started, Sheehan and Johnson promised the DiMaria family that each year the outing would be bigger and better, and have delivered just that. Each year there are more and more golfers, giveaways, raffle prizes, and after-parties.

“We will continue with next year’s outing, which is scheduled for July 1, 2024, at the Rockville Links Club,” Sheehan said.

For more information on the foundation, its upcoming events, or ways to donate and participate, visit MichaelDiMariaFoundation.com.