Ricky Inc. hosting golf tourney

Norwood’s Ricky Inc. is now accepting signups for its inaugural golf tournament next year, June 8, 2027, at the Brookmeadow Country Club in Canton.

Why so early? Well, apparently if you’re a regular golfer, you need a lot of time to prepare.

“I’m not a golfer, but golfers know which tournaments they’re playing in next summer, which is why it’s so important for us to get the ‘Save the Date’ out so early,” Ricky Inc. co-founder Rich Giacoppo said. “We want the golfers to say, ‘Oh yeah I want to play at Brookmeadow. It’s local and it’s a good course,’ etc. And it’s for a good cause while they’re at it.”

Giacoppo and his wife started the organization about six years ago after their son Ricky passed away from an accidental opioid overdose. Since that time, they’ve been working to raise funds for backpacks filled with necessities for persons fighting addiction.

“To date, we’ve given out over 4,000 filled backpacks, over 2,500 doses of narcan, hundreds and hundreds of rides for people on the street to substance treatment, and we’ve also given out 100-plus instances of rental assistance for people going into sober living environments,” he said. “Those are major accomplishments for us in the six years we’ve been around.”

Giacoppo said they’ve been able to host the occasional fundraiser, but this is their first golf tournament.

“Over the past six years, we’ve had two comedy shows that were good fundraisers that allowed us to function for about a year,” he said. “We’re on a shoe-string budget, and we don’t really have any overhead expenses other than purchasing materials. We’re 100 percent volunteer. Nobody gets paid, so when people make donations, they go right into the bank, out via check for the materials, and then we ship them right out.”

Giacoppo said they chose the Brookmeadow to host the tournament next year.

“It’s a nice course, it’s local and golfers like it,” he said, adding that the noted Simoni family first founded the course back in the 1960s. “So it definitely has a Norwood relationship to it.”

Apparently, filling up golfers’ schedules is only part of the work needed to host a successful golf tournament. The other parts are a host of fundraising responsibilities, much of which have to be done by volunteers, as Giacoppo said earlier, all the group’s funds go into the mission.

But Giacoppo said while it’s been hard, a lot of folks have stepped up to help.

“We’ve already got a lot in place, including a seven-person golf committee, some people working on helping us with the fundraising, and we’ve been selling sponsored signs for each hole,” he said. “There is a lot of little minutia that has to be done to make a tournament a success. We’ve got some good people on board who have experience at this. It’s definitely helping me because this is my first time organizing a golf tournament.”

Giacoppo said this is his first tournament and he’s not a golfer, so he’s been glad for all the help he can get.

Advertisement

“Everybody on the committee except for me has run their own tournaments or run other tournaments in the last five or 10 years, so we’ve got some experience at least,” he said. “It’s very detailed. You’ve got to get auction prizes, raffle prizes, a staff willing to do the little jobs. I mean I knew going in it was going to be tough. I’ve been looking at a golf tournament for the last four years.”

Giacoppo said he wouldn’t have been able to organize the tournament without the help of the committee, or its chair Doug Jasset.

“I let Doug make all the big decisions,” he said. “I want him to take all the credit, because without Doug and the rest of the guys? I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off.”

For sponsorship inquiries or registration information, contact Giacoppo or Jasset at Info@rickyinc.org and/or jassetd@hotmail.com

For more information on Ricky Inc., go to RickyInc.org