In 2018, and at the age of 94, Peggy Colonello established the Alex & Peggy Colonello Foundation with a mandate to support junior golf in the province of Manitoba. Mrs. Collonello established an unprecedented endowment of $3 million dollars that supports the development of new generations of golfers through grassroots golf initiatives and high-performance programming.
Since 2019, the Foundation has supported junior golf programs including the Golf in Schools and Mobile Clinics initiatives, provincial junior team development, the University of Manitoba Bisons golf program and the annual induction ceremony for the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame.
Mrs. Colonello’s volunteerism spanned decades and started in 1974 where she served as president of the Manitoba Ladies’ Golf Association until 1976. Peggy continued her administrative work in golf serving a two-year term as president of the Canadian Ladies’ Golf Association from 1982-83. During her time on the national executive, Peggy attended World and Commonwealth championships in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Columbia, Britain and Switzerland, including the various Canadian events in which she participated. Peggy, for her contributions to the sport, was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and was an inaugural inductee into the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame on September 29, 2003.
The Colonello name was well known in golf and not only for Peggy’s contributions. Her husband Alex Colonello first moved to Winnipeg in 1941. In 1973, Alex purchased and become president of the Bay Bronze company and eventually acquired the golf accessory line from Bayco Industries to form Bayco Golf Inc. Bayco golf ball washers can still be found on the tee boxes of golf courses all over the world. Alex Colonello passed away in 2013 at the age of 93.
Peggy Colonello passed away on April 15, 2020, at the age of 97 years. She was predeceased by her husband Alex (June of 2013).