The Tony Muscente Memorial Golf Outing
Hopewell Council 7103’a Signature Fundraiser, the Golf outing will be entering its 14th year in 2024. It is a good time to pause and reflect back to a time when it all began. At that time, for Hopewell Council to continue to do its charity work, two things were necessary, namely willing workers and a source of income. Previous to the Golf outing, Brother Knight Tony Muscente and a special crew of Knights including Grand Knight Bob Rushank would gather in the basement of St. Alphonsus Church and make meatballs with homemade sauce. Making and selling our Council’s special brand of meatballs has kept our council financially solvent over the previous years. Preparing and distributing this product took organizational skill, leadership ability and an enormous amount of personal time.
Tony was one of the original members of the Golf Committee, adding his expertise and knowledge to the operation of the golf outing. The Golf outing would take place at Mountain View Golf Course in Ewing New Jersey. The outing would offer Golfers a chance to play golf for charity and enjoy a good lunch with raffle prizes. Once Tony passed away, Brother Knight Bob Rushank became Chairman of the event. The event remained profitable for the council and generated exposure for our council.
After a few years, Bob decided to step down and named Grand Knight Jeff Sellner Chairman. Jeff formed a golf committee that included Brother Knights Gerry Sellner, Frank Rybinski, Al Ambrose, Nick Toth, Jay Sellner and Jim Matticoli. This Group would move the Golf outing to Cherry Valley Country Club allowing participants to play a ‘closed to the public’ course. The Golf outing became the flagship fundraiser of the council and generated revenue that allowed the council to remain solvent.
The council recently moved the outing to Heron Glen Golf Course in Flemington NJ. Throughout the history of the outing, the council has been able to support many charities that included Special Olympics and Make-a-Wish foundation.
The Tony Muscente Memorial Golf outing is an annual event and remains a bedrock foundation of the council and which has been reinvigorated by new members to the golf committee with the same core mission of raising money for charities.