On the first day of the Danny Rossetti Kids Golf Program last Monday, Green Hill Municipal Golf Course head pro Matt Moison grew teary eyed while he told the campers who Rossetti was.
“I always do,” he said.
Rossetti attended the free camp when Moison started it during his first year as head pro in 1996 and he later volunteered at the camp and worked in the pro shop at Green Hill.
Tragically, Rossetti died in a car accident in 2008 at age 26. The following year, Moison named the camp after him.
No camp was held in 2020 due to the pandemic so this year’s camp was the 30th. About 60 youths aged 8-11 attended the camp Monday-Wednesday and another 45 were on a waiting list.
Danny’s parents, John and Pam Rossetti, his brothers Jonathan and Dave, and his nephew Jaxon, 16, volunteered at the camp. John and Pam teared up when they saw Moison do the same and they appreciated that Moison honored their son by naming the camp after him.
“That man’s dream started a blessing to our family,” Pam said.
“He is frozen in time to me,” Moison said of Danny. “I still see him as when I first met him and I still see him as how little he was.”
Moison has grown close to Danny’s parents and siblings and he’s been moved by the love they continue to show for Danny.
“What makes it emotional is it’s a life cut short,” Moison said. “It just makes it a really special week for me.”
Campers received instruction on the range and the practice green, but in a fun way. The good times continued when Moison gathered the kids together in the shade to tell them stories.
“You think kids are always on their phones, but they were listening to him,” Pam said. “He’s like the Pied Piper.”
Asked who has more fun, him or the children, Moison replied, “Oh, there’s no question. It’s me.”
Moison said in his job he has to deal with golfers, budgets, revenues, tee times, tournaments and pace of play. Sometimes, that’s not a lot of fun. The camp, on the other hand, is always fun for him.
Moison never attended a kids golf camp when he was young. He didn’t start playing golf until the summer before he entered Fitchburg State University when worked on the grounds crew at Maplewood Golf Course in Lunenburg. The course is now called Settlers Crossing GC.
“Nobody in my family to this day golfs,” he said. “I’m the only one.”
After working on the grounds crew for two years, he moved into the pro shop and then became an assistant golf pro at Maplewood before coming to Green Hill.
Asked if he expected the junior golf camp to last 30 years, Moison said, “Every year there are new kids so it should.”
One of the kids was more interested in doing cartwheels than learning how to play golf, but that didn’t matter to Moison and the camp volunteers.
“Every kid fits in here,” Pam said. “No matter whether you’re skilled or you don’t even know what you’re doing.”
The kids slid down a Slip ’N Slide on the hill behind the range. Each camper received lunch and a T-shirt.
“Within an hour of the first day,” Pam said, “you realize just how special it is for the kids here. They get to be kids, go on the golf course and have fun. The staff is really good with the kids. You see a lot of joy here.”
“You wish Danny was here to enjoy this with us,” John said.
The Rossettis buy ice cream and candy for the campers on the final day each year.
“The camp is extra good this year,” Pam said. “The weather, the kids. Matt is in rare form, funnier than ever. He just loves this. The kids feed off of him.”
After attending the camp, Danny grew to love golf and he got his brother Dave into golf as well.
“You’ve got to remember David is very ill,” Pam said. “Kidney failure, weak, learning disability, but he taught him how to golf.
Pam said that golf gives Dave, 43, a chance to fit in.
“This camp has blessed our life, it’s blessed our son Dave so much,” Pam said. “I am always thankful to Dan and how he took his brother under his wing. He had a tender heart for Dave.”
Danny would have turned 44 on Sept. 9. So what would he have thought of having a camp named after him?
“He would be so honored,” Pam said. “He looked up to Matt and Mr. (Bill) Foley (Green Hill ranger). They were like his two besties.”
Pam thinks about Danny just about every day, but the camp makes those thoughts happier.
“It’s like you keep him, not so much you keep him alive, but you keep his memory in a good way,” he said. “This is something he loved and we’re lucky. A lot of people don’t have this experience. This is every year for three days with a lot of kids. It’s like a little party. I’ve always said I feel honored, lucky.”
Pam said the family used to call Danny “Dan the Man” and the “Man of the People” because he loved people, especially those who were ostracized, made fun of or shy.
“He would just stand up for people,” Pam said.
“He just loved life,” John Rossetti said. “It’s not an exaggeration. I know people say that, but that’s how he was. He was really fun.”
Blake Aboody, 41, attended the final day of the camp with his daughter, 8-year-old Sadie. Aboody and Danny attended the golf camps together when they were young and when they grew older they volunteered at the camps. They became close friends.
“He was the reason I even went to college,” said Aboody, a graduate of Fitchburg State University. “He helped me fill out the paperwork. He was a helper, he was a teacher. That was his big thing. If you didn’t know how to do something, he would figure out how to do it and then teach you.”
At his home, Aboody has a net to hit balls into and a putting green. He usually is the only one out there, but after the first day of camp Sadie urged him to hang up the net so she could hit balls.
“She was so excited,” Aboody said.
Asked what she thought of the camp, Sadie said, “It’s really good and you learn about golf. At first I didn’t do good, but then I got better.”
The camp helps keep volunteers Ken Engstrand, 90, and Bruce Chansky, 78, young.
“It’s overwhelming sometimes how nice everybody is,” John Rossetti said.
St. John's star shines in Florida
Wyatt Rue, 15, of Princeton did quite well in the Boys 14-15 age division in the Optimist International Junior Golf Tournament.
On July 22-24 at Trump National Doral Resort and Spa in Miami, Fla., Rue shot 75-71-70 to share the top spot with Samuel Trucco of Chile (75-73-68). Rue lost to Trucco in a playoff.
Rue should be one of the top golfers this fall for St. Johns. Last year as a freshman, he played in every match and had the team’s third lowest stroke average.
Story ideas welcome
You can suggest story ideas for this golf column by reaching me at the email listed below. Comments are also welcomed.
—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Green Hill host golf camp in memory of Danny Rossetti