Why We Started the Foundation — In Our Own Words
Grief does strange things to time. The weeks after we lost our dad in April 2024 moved slowly and all at once. There were arrangements to make, people to call, a house full of his things. And in between all of it, the three of us kept finding ourselves in the same conversation.
What do we do with this?
Not with the estate. Not with the logistics. With him. With everything he was to this community, to his friends, to the people whose lives he quietly made easier without ever asking for credit. What do you do when someone like that is gone and you're left holding the weight of who they were?
We didn't have an answer right away. It was more of a feeling that kept coming back — that the way he lived his life was worth continuing somehow. That the instinct he had, to just show up for people, didn't have to end with him.
The idea that gave it shape came from Mark — Anthony's closest friend, someone who knew Joe and loved him. He proposed a charity golf tournament in Joe's honor. Not just as a one-time tribute, but as something annual. Something that could anchor a bigger mission. That conversation is where the foundation really started.
It built from there. The three of us — Anthony, Christina, and Joey — came together around that idea and started asking what else it could become. A tournament, yes. But also a way to find people close to home who need a hand and show up for them. Quietly. Without fanfare. The way he always did.
We incorporated in March 2026, nearly two years after we lost him. It took that long to get it right — to make sure what we were building actually reflected who he was, rather than just who we wished he could have been.
We don't know exactly what this becomes in ten years. What we do know is that people in southeastern Massachusetts will know his name. Not because we put it on something, but because of what gets done in it.
That's enough for us.
Giving back, the way he would have.
— Christina, Joey, & Anthony
The Joseph P. Niccoli Sr. Foundation