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Brian McGuire Memorial Golf Tournament

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Onion legacy fund will continue to support palliative, hospice care 

MORELL — While the golf tournament, associated fund-raising events and awards banquet are no more, the Brian McGuire Memorial (The Onion) will continue to support palliative and hospice care for Islanders. 

The Onion concluded its 14-year run earlier this month with a wrap-up meeting and cheque presentations to disburse almost $120,000 from the record-setting 2022 event held this summer at The Links at Crowbush Cove.  

The provincial palliative care centre and Hospice P.E.I. each received cheques of approximately $35,000. The remaining $50,000 has established a perpetual endowment fund for palliative and hospice care. 

“The Onion will continue to support our health care partners through this legacy endowment fund in perpetuity,” said tourney chairman Bill McGuire. 

He said the host committee looked at options to help hospice and palliative care on a continuing basis even though the golf tournament held its final event this summer. 

The committee, with McGuire family support, agreed that the endowment fund offered an opportunity to continue the Onion’s mission and leave a legacy as a recognition for the contributions of the many tournament supporters over the past 14 years. 

The fund will be administered by the Community Foundation of Prince Edward Island. CFPEI executive director Kent Hudson attended the Onion’s wrap-up meeting to present details of the legacy fund and how it will be administered. 

Current Onion board members will continue as trustees of the fund and meet annually to review the legacy’s operation and approve disbursement of monies raised for palliative and hospice care. 

“The endowment fund will offer an opportunity for Onion sponsors, golfers and donors to continue their support,” said McGuire. Donations to the endowment fund will receive a full tax receipt from the CFPEI. 

McGuire noted that longtime tourney title sponsors P.E.I. Mussel King and Atlantic Shellfish — led by Esther and Jacob Dockendorff, have pledged to continue their yearly support for the Onion by contributing to the legacy fund. 

“Their support, and any donations to the fund, will help see it grow and increase the yearly fund payout to palliative and hospice care.” 

The Onion committee will contact all past Onion supporters in the coming months about this legacy project and encourage them to continue their support in some way, added McGuire. 

The Onion fund also offers an opportunity for Islanders and their families who receive palliative and hospice care to make a donation as a thank you for health care support, or in memory of a loved one. 

McGuire said the annual payouts from the fund in the first several years may be small, but will grow as donations and investments increase. 

“The fund is a perpetual reminder about the Onion golf tournament, the many supporters who helped over the 14-year lifespan of the tourney and the good times we had. It will help us remember the golfers, volunteers and supporters who we lost over the years — that their efforts were important and will have a lasting and important legacy.” 

The Onion began in 2009, two years after the death of Brian McGuire, the manager of the Morell Co-op and a well-known community activist and volunteer.  

“It was a way to support the efforts of palliative and hospice care who fulfilled his wish to die with dignity at home surrounded by family and friends,” said McGuire. “Brian was among the first on P.E.I. to receive palliative home care and that pilot project has now become a viable option available across the province.” 

 In recognition of the Onion’s support, the then newly-opened palliative care centre on Murchison Drive officially designated the Brian McGuire Family Room in 2016. Dr. Mireille Lecours, the provincial director of palliative care services, served as honourary Onion tourney chair for the 14 years of the tournament, while hospice has supported the tournament with a volunteer member on the host committee. Nancymarie Arsenault, the executive director of Hospice P.E.I., volunteered in that role for a number of years. 

The Onion raised $620,000 over the past 14 years. This year, the final tourney’s $120,000 tally was boosted with a $50,000 donation from Mary Jean Irving, president of Master Packaging in Borden.