MILLINOCKET, Maine — Amy Collinsworth last played basketball for Stearns High School in 2007, and she always has wanted to go out on that court and play one more time.
So when she heard that funding for the school’s athletic programs was getting tight, she knew exactly what she wanted to do: Organize an alumni basketball game with Stearns’ old next-door archrival, Schenck High School of East Millinocket, to raise money for both schools’ athletic programs.
“The whole idea was to just help each other out,” the 25-year-old Millinocket resident said. “Hopefully we can support each others’ programs, basketball or whatever they want to put the money towards. It’s up to them how they want to spend it.”
Collinsworth’s idea paid off on Friday night when the two games she organized drew about 1,000 people who watched Stearns’ women’s alumni team beat Schenck 46-25, and Schenck’s team defeat the Stearns men 70-55.
The event, which was sponsored by the Brewer Federal Credit Union, raised $1,420, Collinsworth said. Spectators were asked to make $4 donations, plus there were concession sales.
“Oh, my God, this is awesome,” Collinsworth said. “This is a great turnout. I mean, there are people here that I don’t think have been in this gym since they graduated high school. Everybody’s here. People that don’t even have [friends or family] playing here right now are here.”
In addition to helping the schools’ athletic programs, Collinsworth wanted the games to draw the communities closer together as a demonstration that East Millinocket and Millinocket can work well together to achieve a common goal.
Stearns athletic director Fredy Lazo and superintendent Frank Boynton were grateful for the donation. Boynton said that while the Stearns varsity basketball program never was threatened by budget cuts last year, junior varsity basketball was discontinued for lack of participants and funding.
Schenck High hasn’t cut any junior varsity or varsity sports, but the tennis program was almost cut last year, superintendent Quenten Clark said. Residents reinstated the program at last year’s town meeting. Sports programs might face cuts when the budget season begins in February.
“It comes down to what happens with the state subsidy,” Clark said Sunday, “and we don’t know what the needs of the town are.”
“It is wonderful that they did this,” Clark said of the alumni. “They are good people trying to help out. The money is not going to hire coaches and create a new program or anything like that but it will certainly help keep what we have going.”
The crowd was boisterous. Spectators Wakine Tanous and Miles Butler said that an event to draw the two towns closer has been needed for quite some time.
“The populations from both towns have been decreasing quite a bit over the last 10 to 15 years,” Tanous said. “I know that the [school] consolidation issue has been brought up several times over the years and hasn’t happened yet. We all know that. It’s something that more people are open to, this time.
“This is a way to start that consolidation process,” Tanous added.
Barbara Curtis watched the game while holding her grandson, newborn Reese McAvoy, in her arms and sitting next to his father, Troy McAvoy, and her daughter, Paige Curtis, who played for Stearns.
“All my kids are playing. All three of them,” Curtis said. “It makes me feel old.”
“You are,” Paige Curtis joked.
Collinsworth said she hopes to make the alumni fundraiser games an annual event and possibly organize other fundraisers, including softball and baseball games in the spring.