From staff reports
Venango Catholic High School students will benefit again this year from a golf outing next month in memory of a VC graduate.
The eighth annual Thomas McGinty Golf Outing, which supports a scholarship fund in McGinty’s name, will be held Saturday, June 9, at Venango Valley Golf Course near Cambridge Springs.
McGinty, who died in October 2009 at the age of 51, grew up in Oil City and attended St. Stephen School before graduating in 1976 from Venango Catholic, then known as Venango Christian.
To date, nearly $25,000 has been awarded since the start of the scholarship foundation. The 32 recipients so far have included seven Venango Catholic graduates, and two more students in the VC Class of 2018 will receive scholarships at commencement exercises June 3.
The scholarship fund was formed in early 2010 by Tom Connelly, a longtime friend of McGinty who also grew up in Oil City and now lives in Edinboro.
Tom Connelly also chairs the golf tournament, and he is hoping for a good number of golfers, hole sponsors and prize or donation contributors from the Oil City area. Anyone who wants to golf or make a donation can contact Connelly at (814) 823-4727 or tomc@hydropac.com or Mary Jo McGinty at (814) 673-0720 or mjswazee2@yahoo.com
The outing has turned into an informal Venango Catholic reunion as about 30-40 VC grads, including McGinty’s siblings Bob, Matt and Jodie, meet to golf and/or eat.
Checks to play or make a donation can be made payable to the Thomas M. McGinty Scholarship Fund and mailed to Connelly at 114 Valley View Drive, Edinboro, 16412.
Contributions are received from many parts of the U.S., including Florida, California, Michigan, Illinois and Kansas.
McGinty was working at the State Correctional Institute in Cambridge Springs as a drug and alcohol treatment supervisor at the time of his death. He was also known in the area for his Polliwog Pond comic strip that was published in The Derrick and The News-Herald.
