$1,000 raised

Teachers, students square off on Camden gym court to benefit LifeFlight

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 3:30pm

CAMDEN – In an emergency when you can't get there from here you call LifeFlight. Camden-Rockport Middle School eighth grade students and teachers took to the hard court Tuesday night for a friendly, but very competitive game of basketball to benefit LifeFlight of Maine.

In the end, it was teachers’ 218 to the students’ 287. That's a high score, but there's a story to that. It seems the spectators could buy points for their favorite team.

Molly Mann, who is now a senior at Camden Hills Regional High School, sang the National Anthem and was herself saved by LifeFlight when she was a seventh grader at the middle school after a ski accident.

Jamie Stone, principal of CRMS and a member of the teacher team, said sometimes you have to lose for all the right reasons.

"The kids were awesome,” she said. “We're really proud of them. They played really well together as a team.”

Matt Smith, assistant principal, said the teachers were strong as a loosely structured offensive team.

Both agreed that they won on the joy and fun factor. Stone said when it's a charitable event everybody wins.

In all the students and teachers raised $1,000 for LifeFlight.

A father/son and a father/daughter squared off on the court.

Dana Southworth teaches physical education at CRMS, and his daughter, Dana, is in the eighth grade. 

"It was fun," Dana the Daughter said. "Everybody was saying they're going to beat you, but we won and I liked it."

Dana the Dad said she did beat him and he was perfectly OK with it.

"It's all for a good cause," he said. "My brother, her uncle, was LifeFlighted last summer. It's a great cause and I'm pleased we raised as much money as we did."

Mark Feldman is in Special Education and his son, Ruben, played against him. Feldman said it was a lot of fun and he thought everyone played really well against each other.

Kristin Nelson, school nurse, said this was the second annual fundraiser the school has done.

"We put it out to a vote to the eighth graders to see who they wanted to benefit from this years game and they chose LifeFlight," she said.

Nelson said it was true. You could buy points for your favorite team.

Last year the game was in the 400s," she said. "We played our regular game of basketball, but in addition to that fans could help support the team they wanted to win. It's a dollar a point. It helps even out the game, but in the last five minutes we stop the point buying and play out the game to see who wins."

The eighth graders definitely had youth on their side, but the teachers held the height advantage.

Shooting was pretty much even. Teachers had aggressive offense, but the students were tenacious on defense.

"Last year benefited Grahamtastic Connection, which is technology to support students who are homebound or hospitalized," Nelson said. "Each year we are going to pick a different charity that means something to us and give that money to them."

Nelson said it was all part of spirit week at the middle school. The game got snowed out twice and had to be postponed.

Students were allowed, as well as teachers, to have as many people on their respective teams as they wanted. Not on the court, but the benches were full and players were constantly changing.

"As many as want to participate," said Nelson. "It's pretty informal that way. The goal is just to get as many people out who want to play and have fun, be silly and raise money. I love LifeFlight of Maine because they support all Mainers no matter where you live. I know they've saved a lot of lives and we've had several families from the middle school that have been helped by LifeFlight."

Melissa Arndt, communications director for LifeFlight, said she wasn't aware of point buying, but thought it was an ingenious way to raise money.

"We have bases in Bangor, Lewiston and now in Sanford as of yesterday," she said. "Our funding raising office, the LifeFlight Foundation, is in Camden. Because of our location we do have a lot of connections and get a lot of enthusiasm and energy from Knox County."

Arndt said that this type of community support is critical to provide this type of service to the community of Maine.

"We do operate like a hospital, so when we fly patients we bill their insurance, if they have insurance," she said. "Some of them do and some of them don't, but most insurance companies do cover LifeFlight. It is a good investment. Studies show air ambulances decrease the amount of time people spend in the hospital. Cardiac patients get care within 40 minutes. Trauma patients we know need care within that first hour after their accident."

There is no state funding for LifeFlight. It is supported solely by private donations and fundraisers.

Arndt said two words: speed and care, best describes LifeFlight. Since 1998, 22,000 patients have benefited from LifeFlight.

 

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