The Joanie Sagriff Memorial Fund, held by the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area, honours the life of a remarkable community champion whose influence on local sport and youth opportunity continues to grow. The Fund reflects Joanie Sagriff’s lifelong passion for getting girls in the game and for standing up quietly but firmly for what was right.
Even as a child, Joanie was not afraid to lead. Her brother, Rob Besselink, remembers all five siblings crammed onto a toboggan on the hill at Saint Pats. “Joanie was always at the front of the family toboggan,” he recalls. “We put her up there because she was the bravest, and every run ended with ‘don’t tell Mom.’ That was Joanie. She met everything head on.”
That spirit showed early on the basketball court. As a young girl at Saint Pats Elementary, Joanie saw boys playing in the long-running Knights of Columbus league and noticed there was no equivalent for girls. She kept after league founder Pete Petersen until he agreed to start a girls’ division. Rob explains that she “harassed him until he got a women’s league going,” opening the door for generations of girls’ basketball in Kingston.
Today, the annual high school basketball tournament held in Joanie’s name brings together twelve girls’ teams over two days and carries forward her belief that girls should stay involved in organized sport through their high school years. The tournament helps raise money for the Joanie Sagriff Memorial Fund, which provides financial support to local students pursuing post-secondary education or to students whose immediate family has received a cancer diagnosis.
Rob notes that cancer brings many hidden costs, such as travel, parking, accommodation and lost income, and that the Fund is there to help ease that burden. Each year, Joanie’s family commits many hours to organizing the tournament and quietly identifying students who could use support. Donors to the Joanie Sagriff Memorial Fund help ensure that Joanie’s courage at the front of the toboggan and her determination on the court continue to lift Kingston students when they need it most.
