McGuirk Memorial Fund & Golf Tournament

Our Story

 

It was the summer of 1992:

 

Vanita & John McGuirk wanted to have a family golfing day. So they gathered up their six children, relatives and a few close friends. In the following year, Vanita & John’s youngest son and his wife were pregnant. It was a normal healthy pregnancy until the ninth month. That’s when the unexplained happened, the baby was stillborn. As time went by, the couple was blessed with a healthy baby boy. A year later the couple was pregnant again, this time a C-section was scheduled at eight and a half months. Then the unspeakable happened again, another stillborn. Months later, Vanita ran into Dr. Timothy Johnson at a local store and asked him for his medical insight on how could this happen to a healthy women? Dr. Tim told her about Vincent Services at Mass General and the great work they do in this particular area. Vanita contacted the board of directors at Mass General immediate. That is when it was decided to raise money for high risk pregnancies. In the following years, the tournament grew and grew. Raising more than $30,000 for high risk pregnancies. In 2002 John McGuirk, a highly respected Peabody Youth Hockey coach for many years, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. John fought his battle at the Northshore Cancer Center in Peabody. The Northshore Cancer was merging with Mass General Hospital and were in the process of building the Mass General North Shore Cancer Center in Danvers. Nearly a year of fighting this horrible disease, John was taken from us. That’s when Vanita and her children purchased an exam room plaque honoring ‘Coach’ John McGuirk. In 2010, Vanita suddenly became ill and needed emergency heart valve surgery. After spending several weeks in intensive care (and recruiting a few doctors and nurses to play in our tournament), she was able to return home and resume her normal life as a CCD teacher, working with the children's choir as well as the wedding coordinator at St. Adelaide's Church in Peabody and of course her tournament responsibilities. We are so fortunate to have her well again and involved in getting this tournament organized every year.

                                           

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                                                                                 - The Salem News

                                                                                                     Salem, MA