Seventh and eighth grade boys play during a game at the Central Maine All-Star Showcase on Saturday at the Kennebec Valley YMCA in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal Buy this Photo

AUGUSTA —Sometimes the best ideas come from a simple thought. A simple question, like, what can we do to help?

That’s how Bulldog Strong came to be, in 2013. Ryan Madore’s mother, Joan Madore, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ryan and his wife, Jamie Madore, and friends Joey and Suzanne Gilbert, asked that question. What can we do to help? Not just Ryan’s mother, but other families fighting cancer. Other families who just needed help.

That’s how Bulldog Strong was born.

“Our motto was ‘Be strong, Bulldog strong’ because of (Joan’s) fight,” Jamie Madore said.

In the seven years since Bulldogs Strong put on its first event, a girls basketball camp at Hall-Dale High School in 2014 with 30 participants, the organization has raised $101,550, Ryan Madore said. That money has gone to families in need of a hand and to community projects. There was $10,000 to LeVasseur Strong, to help Augusta native Noel LeVasseur in his battle with ALS. Donations to Hall-Dale and Monmouth food pantries, and a Skowhegan homeless shelter. Another $20,000 to help Hall-Dale High School in Farmingdale with a new gymnasium floor. Through 2019, Bulldog Strong had awarded $15,000 in academic scholarships to graduating seniors in the area.

Seventh and eighth grade boys play during a game at the Central Maine All-Star Showcase on Saturday at the Kennebec Valley YMCA in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal Buy this Photo

“Where we are today is never where we thought we’d be, to be honest with you,” Ryan Madore said. “It’s been something we never imagined. The first event we ever ran, our goal was $5,000. Someone said $8,000, and I remember in the board meeting I said there’s no way. And we raised $10,000 in that tournament. It’s grown from there. Every dollar we make, we give back. Our tribe, our village, continues to grow because people understand and support our mission.”

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Saturday, Bulldog Strong put on its long-awaited all-star showcase day of basketball at the Kennebec Valley YMCA. Beginning at noon with the 7th and 8th grade girls game, Bulldog Strong organized eight games featuring some of the top basketball players in central Maine, 160 basketball players in all. Originally scheduled for November, the event was postponed until the state had a better handle on the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan is to get back on schedule this fall, with the all-star showcase in November, at the start of the season, instead of after.

“A short window came up with an opportunity for us to hold it here. There’s strict guidelines we’re following, 100 percent, but it’s something that great to reward these kids and get them recognition they deserve after a long winter season,” Joey Gilbert said.

That first basketball camp with 30 girls doubled in size to become a co-ed camp in 2017. In 2018, the camp outgrew the small Hall-Dale High gym, and moved to the Augusta Civic Center, where it hosted more than 100 campers from across Maine. In 2016, they held the first Bulldog Strong Invitational, a three-day basketball tournament with 24 teams and approximately 250 athletes participating. The all-star showcase began in 2018.

“We have kids from Bangor to all the way from, I think we have a girl from Gorham coming,” Ryan Madore said.

After a winter of shortened and interrupted seasons, a chance for 160 students to just play some ball was a joy. The games were typical all-star games, with up and down the court action. Players from different schools and towns took time to get to know how each other move on the court, and let basketball instincts take over. Coaches like Hall-Dale girls coach Jarod Richmond and Cony boys coach TJ Maines were there to offer encouragement and tips and make sure everybody got plenty of playing time.

Since spectators weren’t allowed, the games were livestreamed during the Central Maine All-Star Showcase on Saturday at the Kennebec Valley YMCA in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal Buy this Photo

Two feet behind each 3-point line, three circles were placed on the court. A shot made from inside one of those circles — or close to it, nobody was being a stickler here — was worth four points. You knew the final game of the day, the 10:30 p.m. game with 11th and 12th grade boys, would wear out those 4-point circles. Players like Maranacook’s Cash McClure, who was named Mr. Maine Basketball on Friday, as well as Mr. Basketball semifinalists Matt Parent of Messalonskee and Wyatt Hathway of Leavitt, would see those circles as a challenge to be conquered.

When they looked at those circles, to judge where they were and set their feet to shoot, the players saw exactly what they were there for. An America flag, the stripes the many colors of the various cancer -fighting groups, with a pink ribbon in the foreground. “No one fights alone,” it read under the flag. “All cancers matter.”

“The future, we don’t know. We’ll just keep going year-to-year. A new window opens up, and we’ll tackle it,” Gilbert said.

Bulldog Strong pushes on. That $101,550, that’s just the start.

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