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| Contributed photo/Limestone Recreation Department Limestone’s Matt Pelkey gets his tournament T-shirt signed by Loring Job Corps student Chris Lia Ping during the Winter Tip-off Benefit Basketball Tournament held by the Limestone Recreation Department during its first-annual Weekend of Wellness event. |
LIMESTONE — The Limestone Recreation Department’s first Weekend of Wellness and benefit basketball tournament, held Dec. 8 and 9, were both major successes.
More than 120 community members from Limestone to Houlton came out to participate in activities that included open swim, step aerobics, healthy cooking demonstrations, line-dancing, personal training consultations, Swedish massages and a very successful basketball tournament.
Tables of information regarding healthy-living lined the halls of the Limestone Community School on the first day of the event. Participants were able to take pamphlets and enter giveaways related to topics from heart disease and dental hygiene, to physical activity and smoking cessation.
The first basketball tourney was popular as well. The bleachers in Veteran’s Gymnasium were full of participants and fans from early afternoon into the evening, when the tournament champions were announced. Competitive games, numerous giveaways and concessions offered by Limestone’s snowmobile club, the Snowhawks, made the tournament a fun, family-friendly event.
The Loring Job Corps team won the tournament, ending with an undefeated record. In between games, middle school aged students from the Limestone community were able to grab autographs from their favorite players and watched in awe as the adults put on a show, swishing three-pointers and dunking the basketball at both ends of the court.
Approximately $150 was raised from the weekend and given to the Caribou Soup Kitchen to put towards their ceiling project. Each year the basketball tournament will benefit a different community organization or group in need. This year, the Maine School of Science and Mathematics brought forward the idea of contributing to the soup kitchen.
“It was great to see the students and community members enjoying a day full of basketball, prizes, and fun activities,” said Sara Martin, Limestone’s newly-hired director of parks and recreation, “For a first-year event, I would consider this weekend to be extremely successful. The recreation department had a lot of help from the community to pull off both events and it couldn’t have been done without them.
“The Maine School of Science and Mathematics, Healthy Aroostook, and Limestone’s SnowHawks were absolutely amazing to work with. Their support really showed the true character of the Limestone community. We’re already planning next year’s events,” Martin added.
For more information on how you can contribute to the Caribou Soup Kitchen’s ceiling project or for more information about the Limestone Recreation Department’s upcoming events, contact Sara Martin at 325-4791.
