The Western Mass. 9/11 Tribute golf outing included sports celebrities Tom 'Satch' Sanders, Dave Cowens, M.L. Carr, Greg Kite, Bill Lee and Don Marcotte. Watch video
WESTFIELD – This will be a weekend of celebration, not mourning for the family of Daniel P. Trant, one of three Westfield natives killed during the 9/11 terrorist attack at New York's World Trade Center.
"This is a time to celebrate rather than mourn," said Matthew J. Trant, who along with his mother Mary and sisters Sally Trant and Patricia A. Madamas were present for Friday's Western Mass. 9/11 Tribute golf outing at the Ranch Country Club in Southwick.
On Saturday the Trants will be in Agawam at the Oak Ridge Country Club for the 8th annual Daniel Trant Memorial Golf Tournament. Both events support the Daniel P. Trant Scholarship at Westfield High School, where he was a standout basketball player.
"Dan was a fun person, and events like this allow us to reminisce with old friends," said Mary Trant.
"We have been to Ground Zero and there is nothing there for us. This is where we want to be," Matthew Trant said of Sunday's 10th anniversary of the attack. On Sunday the family will be at the Sons of Erin's annual memorial service remembering their brother and Westfield natives Tara Shea Creamer and Brian J. Murphy, also killed on 9/11 in New York.
Madamas said the weekend "is an opportunity to be with family. Saturday's tournament is a fun event, not a sad event.
"Dan was a lot of fun and he would appreciate that we celebrate his life this way," Madamas said. "His spirit is always with us."
Mary Trant now resides in Winterhaven, Fla., while Sally lives in Tampa, Fla. Matthew Trant resides in Bethesda, Md., and Madamas still lives in Westfield.
The Western Mass. 9/11 Tribute was hosted by South Hadley natives Marc E. Leonard and Christopher B. Visser to raise funds for the Trant and Jean Roger Scholarship funds and support the Wounded Warrior Amputee Sports Teams.
Roger, of Longmeadow, also was killed in the attack at the World Trade Center, and family members were scheduled to arrive at the golf course later Friday.
The Tribute tournament attracted 144 golfers, including 22 sports celebrities such as former Celtics Tom 'Satch' Sanders, a member of the 2011 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, Dave Cowens, M.L. Carr and Greg Kite. Bill Lee, former Red Sox pitcher, and Don Marcotte, former Bruins player, also were in attendance. Most celebrities played except for Sanders, who was nursing an injured foot.
Retired Marine Corps MSgt. William "Spanky" Gibson, captain of the Wounded Warrior Amputee softball team, called the event "wonderful. It is an honor to be invited and given the opportunity to meet people who want to help support us. 9/11 is my generation's Pearl Harbor."
Gibson, 40, of Oklahoma, retired from the Marine Corps last month after 22 years of service. That tenure included a tour of duty in Iraq with a prosthetic left leg. He had been a victim of a sniper bullet during his first Iraq duty in 2006.
Numerous regional businesses were donators to the effort, including King Ward, which provided transportation for several of the celebrities.
Visser summed up the purpose of the event quoting his late mother Mary: "You cannot think respect. You need to show respect," he said.
Leonard said, "We have received enormous community support and major sponsors from throughout the region."
Proceeds from the event, which have yet to be tallied, will go directly to the Trant and Roger scholarships and the Wounded Warrior Amputee sports teams, said Leonard.
"There is no question about this occasion," said Sanders. "It is about men and women who lost their lives. They will not be forgotten," he said.
Kite said he was "honored and excited" to participate in the tribute because of his "New England ties."
Marcotte, of Amesbury, said the tribute "is a good idea. It is something to support the families."
"It is self-explanatory," Lee said, referencing everyone's attendance Friday. "I am here for the same reason as everyone else."
Some area golfers participating in the tribute tournament included Johnny Yee, owner of Chicopee's HuKeLau Restaurant; Douglas Mercier, of West Springfield's Mercier Carpet, retired Chicopee Police Sgt. Thomas O'Donnell, Westfield Fire Chief Mary R. Regan and Dennis R. King, of Agawam.
Susan R. Taylor, of Holyoke, was hoping to meet Cowens and enjoy a round of golf with her friend Donna M. Bliznak, of Northampton.
"This is a wonderful event but a little bittersweet," said Taylor.
Bliznak said, "This is a wonderful cause and we are excited to participate."
Trant and Murphy were working in their offices at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Roger was a flight attendant, and Creamer was a passenger, both on American Airlines flight 11, one of two planes that flew into the Twin Towers that day.