NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HESSTON, Kan. — The 10th Annual Vince Garcia Golf Tournament is taking place Saturday, May 6 at Hesston Golf Course.
"Ten years ago, the Newton Fire Department, our friends over there, started a benefit golf tournament for one of their members that had been diagnosed with cancer, Vince Garcia," said Hutchinson Fire Captain Troy Mueller. "They had the golf tournament to help raise funds for Vince to pay for some medical expenses. After Vince passed, they kept the tournament going. They find a fire family in the area that had some medical expenses going on and they had them as the beneficiaries for the tournament."
A Hutchinson Fire family will get the proceeds this year.
"It's the wife of one of our members, Martin Swiggart, he's one of our firefighters, his wife Taira had been diagnosed with non small cell lung cancer not quite a year ago," Mueller said. "They caught it very early on, luckily, and her prognosis is really good. However, the treatment she has to have, they have to travel down to Texas to get. It's rather expensive. This year, our friends over at Newton Fire decided that they would be the beneficiaries of the tournament."
The Swiggart family has a baby, Waylon, who is not quite a year old. Taira has worked with Stovers Restoration for 10 years.
"They do a lot after the fire," Mueller said. "They are a company that comes in and does the restoration work to help victims of fires get their life back together and kind of restore their homes and get back to some kind of normalcy. A lot of folks probably know who Taira is. They do a lot of work with insurance agencies and plumbers in the area, doing some classes and some recert hours that those folks need."
There are 36 teams signed up for the event. If you can't attend, but still want to help, you can Venmo a payment to Zac Lujano with Newton Fire at @VGGolf or call him at (316) 288-1744 or email [email protected] to make other arrangements.
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