By Rick VanSickle
Joe Pillitteri dishes out side-splitting laughs as Niagara’s most famous comedian, but it is the work he does for the Terry Fox Foundation that makes him larger than life.
Pillitteri was first inspired by Terry Fox in 2008, a year that the owner of Lakeview Vineyard Equipment Inc. was facing the most difficult challenges in his life with his business due to the recession, and envisioned “bankruptcy, an auction sale, failure,” he told Wines in Niagara as part of a Q&A.
“One of my children was doing a heritage fair project about Terry Fox and had a book about his life that I decided to thumb through,” Pillitteri said. He did not know the full details of Fox’s life, but learned through the book that he was a gifted athlete long before losing his leg to cancer.
“When he was diagnosed with cancer, he was in a B.C. children’s hospital and heard the cries of kids that were much younger than him and decided that he was going to do something to raise awareness and help find a cure for cancer,” said Pillitteri. Fox decided “he would run across Canada, from coast to coast to try to make sure that nobody would have to suffer through what he or those children in that hospital were going through. I swear, it gave me immediate perspective,” Pillitteri said. “Here I was in a puddle of tears reading about Terry Fox, who had gone through something much more difficult than I was facing and decided to do something more difficult than I had ever attempted as his action response. It really spoke to me and honestly was a pivotal moment in my recovery during that time.”
NOTE: Full Q&A follows below this intro.
In that first 5-km run in 2008 Pillitteri raised $385, a modest beginning for what has been nearly $500,000 raised since then. Pillitteri successfully weathered the financial storm in 2008, and with a lot of help from his many clients, friends, and the greater Niagara wine community, “Team Pillsy” was ranked the No. 3 fundraising team in 2022. And he’s not done yet. Hardly.
“I’m getting plans together so that we can all be the second team in the world to hit $1 million in total fundraising for The Terry Fox Foundation,” he said. “Terry Fox’s example and message of hope changed the course of my life for the better. What I love most about our team is that we do this as a community and that makes it feel so great.”
The goal to reach $1 million before the end of 2025 doesn’t surprise his friend, Brian Schmidt (pictured above with Pillitteri), the winemaker at Vineland Estates Winery and a tireless fundraiser for various charities in his own right. “Joe is in a rarified group of people that have committed themselves to goals that transcend their own gains or desires. Joe is always looking for ways to ‘give back’ to help and to otherwise make the world a better and more tolerant place.”
Pillitteri was born and raised in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He is an emcee, stand-up comedian, inspirational speaker, and motivational leader. He has received numerous awards including Citizen of the Year for his outstanding contributions to the community.
As the owner of Lakeview Vineyard Equipment, Pillitteri, above with his wife Rebecca, works closely with grape growers and farmers in the community. When times were tough for his business, it was the support of the farmers that helped him through it. His personal story of entrepreneurial challenges to overcoming obstacles and achieving success delivered in an engaging, meaningful, and humorous way is what makes Pillitteri stand out in a crowd.
“Team Pillsy” is the name of the army of participants and volunteers Pillitteri gathers up each year for the run and events held year-long. I asked him where the name comes from.
“It’s sad actually,” Pillitteri deadpans. Playing Tuesday night hockey, I realized as my teammates were calling out nicknames to each other on the ice like Fritz, Vanz, Dishy that I’ve never had a sportsy nickname (spoiler alert, I’ve never been a great athlete). After one game I lamented my sad, nicknameless life and one of my teammates called out “Pillsy” and said ‘There! Now you have one!’ I’m not proud Rick, happy to have it.”
For the key link to Team Pillsy and how you can get involved, go here.
The annual Terry Fox Run has become a classic Canadian tradition every fall with more than 650 diverse communities across the country coming together to fundraise for cancer research. This year’s run is being held on Sunday, Sept. 17.
Team Pillsy holds several events leading up to the main run this fall. Pillitteri and his team are in the early stages of planning right now, but here are some key events to watch for:
• Comedy on the Patio at Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club
• Peach pie sale/car wash in Virgil
• BIG fall comedy show – venue TBD but it will be a LARGE space.
• The NOTL tractor parade will support Team Pillsy this year both through entry fees and roadside donation collections.
Question and Answer with Joe Pillitteri
Wines In Niagara: You have said that Terry Fox is your hero. Can you elaborate?
Joe Pillitteri: Like most people, I’ve had moments in life that were difficult. In 2008 I was one year into owning Lakeview Vineyard Equipment and, if you’ll recall, the economy essentially collapsed. I essentially went into a panic/depression that I couldn’t escape. I had tremendous support from my amazing family but a lot of days I would come to the office, completely defeated, and just cry with my door closed worried about what was next. I’d never experienced ANYTHING like this before. Bankruptcy, an auction sale, failure was all I could envision. One of my children was doing a heritage fair project about Terry Fox and had a book about his life that I decided to thumb through. Like most Canadians, I KNEW who Terry Fox was, but I never really knew the details of his life beyond what I could remember as a child. I found out that he was an incredible athlete long before losing his leg to cancer. When he was diagnosed with cancer, he was in a B.C. children’s hospital and heard the cries of kids that were much younger than him and decided that he was going to do something to raise awareness and help find a cure for cancer. Based on an article he’d read about an amputee in the USA he decided he would run across Canada, from coast to coast to try to make sure that nobody would have to suffer through what he or those children in that hospital were going through. I swear, it gave me immediate perspective. My dad had been telling me that FEAR can’t get you – the ONLY thing that can get you is not taking action. Here I was in a puddle of tears reading about Terry Fox, who had gone through something much more difficult than I was facing and decided to do something more difficult than I had ever attempted as his ACTION response. It really spoke to me and honestly was a pivotal moment in my recovery during that time.
WIN: What is your personal connection to Terry Fox and at what point did you decide to become a champion for the foundation by raising nearly $1 million?
Pillitteri: I completed my first Terry Fox run in September of 2008 and raised something like a whopping $385. I’m not saying anything against the amount raised, in the state I had been in it was a small miracle that I could complete a 5-km run. I knew I wanted to do more, so the next year I was more active and then in 2012 I thought The Terry Fox Foundation would benefit more by starting a team with my cousin Mike – Team Pillsy.
The $1M goal came to me after another traumatic life event. Yours truly rolled down a hill in a grape harvester demonstration in Pennsylvania in 2021. I was working with a brilliant young teammate of mine (Isaac VanderZalm) who lost his father last year to cancer. Just before I started the demonstration, Isaac yelled up to me in the cab of the machine asking if I had my seatbelt on. Ashamed to admit that I didn’t but I fastened and started the demo. At the end of the second row, I came out of the row awkwardly and the machine began to slip. I then KNEW it was going to roll, and it did. One times, two times, and three times. During what seemed like an eternity while I was rolling, I was thinking that this was going to be a really dumb way to die, that I was sad Isaac would have to tell my family this grim news, that I had more that I wanted to accomplish in life. At the bottom of the hill, I REALLY thought I was dead and was going to blackout in any moment. Suddenly, my young friend Isaac appeared in front of the machine (I think expecting to see a dead person). He and the customer ripped the roof off the machine and pulled me out. After the shock of not being dead, or really seriously injured wore off I decided I could do bigger things with my time on earth than I previously had aspired to – raising $1M for Terry Fox was one of them.
I think it’s important to note that Isaac’s father John was given a year to live (over 8 years ago) He survived 7 years beyond his diagnosis and was an annual participant in our NOTL Terry Fox Run – walking it without assistance even during his more difficult stages of treatment. Isaac and his family joined us in 2022 in honour of his dad — proud Terry Foxers all of them. Sorry for a long answer to a short question!
WIN: What is it going to take to become the second team in the world to hit $1 million in total fundraising for The Terry Fox Foundation and what will it mean for Team Pillsy?
Pillitteri: More teammates, bigger events, and more events!! Seriously – if ANYONE wants to contribute ANYTHING – any donation, any time, any help to our goal we would LOVE to have you on board!!
WIN: The success of your fundraising for the Terry Fox Foundation is based in large part to the greater wine community in Niagara. How crucial is that support and what can you say about the wine community that gives so selflessly to helping cure cancer in the name of a Canadian hero?
Pillitteri: Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. If I was going to start anywhere, I would say that there isn’t a winery in Ontario that doesn’t get asked to help on a weekly or daily basis. Help for all the need that exists both for charity and community. So, when I ask for help, I don’t ever take any business’s ability to help for granted. Having said that, I’ve had the luxury of asking any winery we know in Canada and the USA to donate wine to fundraisers, to sponsor events, or to promote our fundraising efforts and without fail they always come back with YES. I tell my children and business partner all the time, whatever you do to make a living make sure that if you stopped doing it tomorrow, you’d have connections that MATTER with people that CARE. I (*WE) are SO fortunate to be in the industry we are in with the people that we partner with.
Companies like Ravine Winery, Oast Brewery, Garrison House, and Jackson Triggs (Arterra Wines) have donated space, food, staff, and time to make large fundraising efforts work, even during COVID and I’ll be forever grateful for that. Other wineries like Pillitteri Estates, Riverview Cellars, Konzelmann, Ferox, Palantine Hills, Peller Estates, Bella Terra wines, Vineland Estates, Chateau des Charmes, Colonari, Reif Estates, M Cellars (Ohio), Keswick Vineyards (Virginia), Arrowhead Wines (Lockport, N.Y.) (I’m terrified I’m forgetting someone here) have always generously donated amazing wines to help boost our fundraising efforts at each and every event.
WIN: As a comedian, your many shows throughout the year are primarily fundraisers for the Terry Fox Foundation. At one point did you link comedy with raising money for such a crucial charity?
Pillitteri: I was super fortunate to have met a woman named Maria Volante (above) – my high school drama teacher. She was an amazing teacher in every sense of the word. In fact, in 2000 when I was working for the John Deere company, I had the THOUGHT that I would like to segue from open mike nights at Yuk Yuk’s to producing a show for a local charity. I had long graduated from high school, but I didn’t really have an ACT yet beyond the 5 minutes I was doing at amateur nights. Maria invited me to meet with her high school drama festival group on Saturdays to help develop a 45-minute set that would work as a show. She and those kids were incredible. When my time under her tutelage was complete – she reminded me that I had a gift and that I was going to use it to do good things in this world or at the very least I should TRY to. That thought never left me so as my act developed and my connection with the Terry Fox Foundation developed it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me. Fun fact: Maria Volante changed the course and trajectory of my life.
WIN: When you started raising money for Terry Fox in 2008, could you ever envision a goal of $1 million?
Pillitteri: In 2008 I started, and at the time I thought $1,000 was a lofty goal. I read a book a week and typically try to choose books that inspire. The common theme in most of them is that things are only possible if you envision theme to be so – in that regard $1,000,000 stood out as a number that mattered.
WIN: I know this cannot be done alone. Who have you leaned on to make this work year after year?
Joe: My business partners (former partner Rick Podolinsky and current partner Jesse Willms) have always understood how important Terry Fox is to me. They’ve fully supported any time I’ve had to be away from the business or any and all resources Lakeview Vineyard Equipment puts towards the Terry Fox Foundation. The natural extension of that is every single one of the 23 teammates I have here at Lakeview understand the same thing and help in any way they can. It’s always evident that there’s a Terry Fox show coming up when our service manager Mike Key had a Lakeview truck loaded with door prizes, wine gifts, sound systems and raffle tickets take off with a crew from Lakeview to the NOTL Community Centre happily helping make the night a great one for the Terry Fox Foundation.
WIN: What can people do to help with the campaign, both by giving generously and volunteering to help you raise money?
Pillitteri: Honestly – Terry Fox once said that anyone that contributes anything to the cause was part of his Marathon of Hope. Same goes for Team Pillsy – if you want to be part of our team, or donate, or organize a fundraiser, or help with one of our fundraisers we would LOVE to have you. Our team is at $480,000 and I really want to hit $1,000,000 before the end of 2025. That will require monumental community support and we will take whatever we can get!!! We’ve had some wineries that plan on setting aside tasting fees from a week or a month closer to harvest as a donation but seriously – any amount will help!!
WIN: It must make you proud that a smaller community such as Niagara even has a shot to be the second team in the world to hit $1 million in total fundraising for the Terry Fox foundation. You must feel such a great sense of satisfaction and pride in your community and those on Team Pillsy.
Pillitteri: I actually get emotional every time I think about it. There is no feeling like the feeling of community knowing that every single person I’m looking out at from a stage, or I see baking pies, or washing cars, or donating whatever they can JUST WANTS TO HELP. A young man that died nearly 43 years ago still inspires this kind of spirit and generosity. A gift he gave the world much larger than I’m sure he could have ever imagined. It’s such a life affirming and positive experience for me and there isn’t a moment that goes by that I don’t feel lucky and blessed to have access to it.
Fabulous, geniune guy. Loves his family. Seen him many times but his shows never disappoint. Finally the charity work for the comminity and especially Terry Fox is outstaning. Keep up yjr great work Joe, we’re all behind you.