Mayor’s Golf Outing raises $50K for Community Fund

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Residents and elected officials hit the golf course at the Rockville Links on Sept. 27 for the 34th annual Mayor’s Golf and Dinner Classic to benefit the village’s Community Fund, which has helped residents in financial distress for the past three decades.

The event is the primary source of financial support from the community for the program, generating an estimated $1.9 million that has been dispersed to those in need of assistance. This year’s outing raised about $50,000. That total comprises donations and sponsored raffles, goody bags and holes on the course.

Though Mayor Francis X. Murray missed the outing for the first time due to a Covid-19 diagnosis, he said he was pleased with the turnout and sent his regards to honorees Thomas Gallucci and Robert Pagnotta and 2021 Eugene J. Murray Outstanding Citizenship Award recipient Mary Lou Marquardt.

“These worthy honorees are a shining example of what it takes to make a community a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” Murray said in a statement on Monday.

Gallcuci said he was honored to be recognized.

“What I do, I do for my love of the village” Gallucci said. Gallucci is part of the RVC Planning Board and said that the last two years have been especially important for the fund with the pandemic causing many people to be out of work.

Gallucci has been a resident for more than 40 years and has supported the Community Fund for 20 years. He has engrossed himself in the community by serving on the village Budget Committee, Housing Authority, the Pat Agresti Memorial Foundation, and coaching both soccer and little league baseball teams, among other things.

Pagnotta has been the chair of the village’s Housing Authority for more than 20 years and has seen the fund grow since its creation. “I worked with [former Mayor] Gene Murray and I saw him wok for the community out of his own pocket at times,” Pagnotta said. Pagnotta added that the best part of the fund is that the recipients of its assistance are anonymous.

Pagnotta has been a resident for more than half a century, volunteering his time as part of the village Planning Board, Board of Zoning Appeals and the Citizen’s Budget Finance Committee. He has been a member on the Community Fund’s Golf Committee from 1987 to 1990 and from 1996 to present day.

The RVC Community Fund was established by Eugene Murray in 1987 as a nonprofit charity to help residents of the village with emergency financial needs. The fund receives requests from neighbors, friends, and family members who know someone who may be struggling to stay afloat financially. Often times, funds go to senior citizens, single parents, unemployed residents and disaster victims.

“I think that Gene Murray would be thrilled to see the place full of people who care about the community and always want to take care of those who need it,” Marquardt said. Marquardt is Eugene Murray’s daughter and she said she was excited to continue the fund’s work this year.