Charity basketball in memory of counselors

To celebrate the lives of three young Camp ANCHOR counselors who died in a tragic car accident last July, and to raise money for the foundations and scholarships established in their names, the Malone-Mulhall Benefit Basketball Game is set for July 30 at St. John’s University at 1:30 p.m. The event will also include three-point and dunk contests.

Organizers have received tentative commitments from the area’s top players who compete in the NBA, the NBA D-League and professional leagues in Europe.

There is no better way, organizers say, to honor the memory of Michael Mulhall, 22, Jamie Malone, 22, and Paige Malone, 19, of Floral Park, devoted children, friends and co-workers, than through an athletic competition. Sports was a part of their childhood, their daily routine and their work at ANCHOR.

Camp ANCHOR was established to help aid the social and communication skills of the special-needs population, and Mike, Jamie and Paige had each dedicated seven or more years of their lives to this work. Physical education is a large part of the work at Camp ANCHOR, and a day would hardly go by when Mike couldn’t be seen having a catch with a young child with Down syndrome, or Jamie teaching one of her campers with autism how to play soccer. It was a rarity not to find Paige chasing after one of her 6-year-old campers who had taken off with a basketball, insistent that the lines on the court had little bearing on the actual game. Athletics was not just a time-filler, a way to give the kids a bit of exercise, but an integral part of teaching the campers how to share and cooperate, and, most important, how to take pride in themselves. Mike once spent an entire summer teaching a developmentally disabled camper how to throw a curveball. It is impossible to describe the look of elation on the camper’s face on the last week of camp, when he insisted that the entire staff gather around and watch him hurl the slightest curve from the mound.