JAY — As of Jan. 23, the amount raised for suicide awareness during two basketball games on Jan. 20 was more than $9,000.

Boys and girls basketball teams from Spruce Mountain and Leavitt Area high schools would support The Kita Center at the games, it was announced at the Jan. 9 Regional School Unit 73 board of directors meeting. Students and staff in Spruce Mountain schools have been impacted by a loved one’s death by suicide, it was noted then, with many students having attended Camp Kita. Formed in 2013, camps around Maine have been rented but a permanent facility on Loon Pond in Acton is in the works.

Before the girls game Monday evening, Spruce Mountain athletes spoke with the Livermore Falls Advertiser.

There is not a lot of attention on it, Maddie Grimaldi said when asked why the teams wanted to raise awareness about suicide.

“It’s a good opportunity to show support for mental health,” Avery Bessey noted.

“It’s not spoken of a lot, not directly,” Riley Small added.

No set goal had been set for the fundraiser, but the girls were looking to see how much they could raise.

Jenna Cote and her son, Carter, both of Livermore were choosing special T-shirts to purchase. “Carter goes to Camp Kita and my daughter does, too,” she said.

Spruce Mountain High School senior Avery Ryder was busy putting contact information on raffle tickets while another senior, Hannah Perkins looked on. There were a number of baskets attendees could try to win.

Superintendent Scott Albert was also among the many administrators and staff showing their support for the fundraiser.

“We are happy to report that with the games, concessions and raffle baskets they raised more than $7,000 for Camp Kita,” Skylar Condon, a student representative to the board stated at the Jan. 23 meeting. “It costs about $500 for each person … so that will cover about 15 to go.”

“That is pretty awesome,” Director Andrew Sylvester of Livermore said. “You raised $7,000 for 15 camp memberships. You should be very much applauded.”

Later TJ Plourde, high school principal said more money had come in. “We are a little over nine grand now,” he noted. “It was a really good event. We got that mostly yesterday and this morning. Just super proud of the community that we live in. The amount that people give is always above and beyond what anybody could expect from a community. I am just really happy with that.”