04/23/2026
For National Volunteer Week we celebrate an amazing volunteer from MADD Winnipeg!
Tony Rinella does so much to stop impaired driving. He has graciously shared his heartbreaking story with other experiencing the same loss. Today we learn more about his journey with MADD Canada:
My involvement with MADD Canada comes from a deeply personal loss. When I was just 10 years old, my family and I were coming home from visiting my grandparents. We were hit by a drunk driver traveling at over 100 km an hour. Posted limit was 60 km per hour. My mother, Giovanna Rinella, was killed and I was taken to intensive care with a collapsed lung and head injuries.
Since 1968, I have lived with the lifelong grief of growing up without her love and guidance.
In 2017, my daughter Janina and my wife Yolanda reached out to MADD Canada after learning about the memorial in Winnipeg that honours victims of impaired driving. They connected with Gillian Phillips to ask if my mother’s name could be included. After months of conversations, research, and careful vetting, permission was granted to have her name added.
They kept it a secret from me for two years.
On an early Sunday morning in August 2019, my wife, my daughter, and her husband convinced me to go for a leisurely Sunday drive. I kept asking where we were going, but they wouldn’t say—only that it was a surprise.
After about 30 minutes of driving through the city, we turned into Glen Eden Cemetery. I remember thinking it was a strange destination for a Sunday outing. They pulled over before arriving at the site and asked me to step outside the vehicle. As I stepped out, the rest of my family drove up and suddenly surrounded me, and they handed me an envelope.
Inside was a letter confirming that my mother’s name had been added to the MADD Canada Memorial for victims of impaired driving.
Overcome with emotion, I was led to the site to take part in the unveiling.
To this day, I am deeply honoured and grateful—to my family, to Gillian Phillips, and to Steve Sullivan—for ensuring my mother is remembered on the MADD Canada Memorial here in Winnipeg.
Wanting to give back, I asked what I could do for MADD Canada. The answer was simple: become part of the MADD Canada family as a volunteer and as a board member. Today I am the Vice President of MADD Winnipeg chapter. This is why I got involved with MADD Canada.
The day of the memorial was an emotional release of grief I still struggle to put into words. I was overwhelmed then—and I remain overwhelmed today. It opened my heart in a way I had avoided for decades, forcing me to confront the unresolved grief I had carried in silence for so long.
Through MADD Canada—its conferences, its advocacy, and its mission—I found the strength to speak. It has given me the opportunity to become an advocate, helping to promote the vital message of ending impaired driving.
Today, I proudly wear MADD clothing as a badge of honour. I share my story openly, hoping to connect with others and raise awareness about the devastating consequences of impaired driving.
If my story can reach even one person—if it can make a difference in even one life—then I am grateful. For the first time in my life, I am able to express thoughts and emotions I once kept buried.
MADD Canada has given me a voice.
And for that, I will always be grateful.
