Basketball Tournament to Help Victims of Domestic Violence
Annual Taylor Tip-Off Tournament raises money for children who have lost their parents to domestic violence
AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage is encouraging Mainers to lace up their basketball shoes this November to support children affected by domestic violence. November 10 marks the 5th Annual Taylor Tip-Off Tournament, which is an event to raise money for youth who have lost parents by acts of domestic violence.
Governor LePage has proclaimed November 10 as Taylor Tip-Off Awareness Day in the State of Maine and he will join the Maine Athletic Club and members of Maine Swish basketball on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. at the Augusta YMCA to encourage Mainers to participate in this year’s tournament.
Held each fall since 2009, the Taylor Tip-Off basketball tournament has raised more than $57,000. One hundred percent of the proceeds have been donated to grandparents now raising nine children from four different families impacted by domestic violence in Westbrook, New Gloucester, Winslow and Dennysville, Maine. This year, tragically, there are more children event organizers would like to support, including a two-year-old and four-year-old left parentless when their father stabbed to death their mother in Old Town.
“The terrible tragedies these children have endured are unthinkable,” said Governor LePage. “But we cannot let these tragedies ruin innocent lives that have been caught in the middle of a family’s worst nightmare.
“It is awe-inspiring to see families, friends and communities support the Taylor Tip-Off tournament year after year. I wish there was no need for a fund such as this, but it gives us reason to work harder to eliminate domestic violence as a society.”
The Taylor Tip-Off was started in 2009 by Mark Leclerc of the Maine Athletic Club (MAC) and the Maine Swish basketball team. Kenny Taylor was the assistant coach of Maine Swish, and his then 14-year-old daughter, Kaylee Taylor, played on the team. In April of 2009, Kenny took his own life after murdering his wife, Belinda Taylor, in their Westbrook home. The murder-suicide happened in the morning – six hours later, Kaylee and her then 12-year-old sister, Kiana, returned home from school and discovered their parents. There was no life insurance and no savings account.
For the first two years, money raised through the tournament provided financial support to the Taylor sisters. In 2011, the Taylor Memorial Fund was established, which supports other children across Maine who have lost their parents to domestic violence.
“It is an absolute gift to Mark and I to be able to raise money for these families, but we wish they never needed it in the first place,” said Cathy Evers, Taylor Tip-Off tournament co-founder. “A restraining order is just a piece of paper, and it’s no match against a gun or a knife.”
Leclerc added, “While our focus remains on directly supporting the families themselves, we fully endorse the electronic monitoring program the governor is supporting in the hopes of preventing children from losing their parents in the first place.”
This year, Governor LePage signed a law to develop and implement an electronic pilot project for electronic monitoring of certain domestic violence abusers. In an effort to support the mission of the project $18,000 was provided from the Governor’s contingency fund to match donations raised from the Amy, Coty, and Monica Memorial 5K race/walk held in Dexter in 2012. The Memorial walk raised $36,000, which will go toward implementing a monitoring program.
For more information about the Taylor Tip-Off basketball tournament visit http://taylortipoff.org/TaylorTipOff.org/HOME.html .