After one kickball game exposed a need among local children, Tremont residents began building something that could last beyond a couple of Sundays.

Carrie Jones and Shaun Farrar

Aug 31, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.

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TREMONT—They came to the ball field behind the Tremont Consolidated School in cars, trucks, bicycles, and by foot.

Some came lugging 24-packs of water. Some carried platters of Acadia Provisions sandwiches. Some carried folding tables, face painting supplies, a grill, hotdogs, hamburgers, ice, and sporting gear.

But they came.

The community event organized by Jayson Clough and Laura Apgar (who Clough counted as being the organizing genius and force) happened because of community. That’s it.

What it’s building, though? It’s something more.

That first kickball game Clough organized was held Sunday, August 2, and roughly 15 kids and adults showed up. While the inaugural game did not draw a large crowd, it created a lot of fun and it revealed a need to Clough. The next day he made a video and spoke about his thoughts on the game and he posted it to Facebook.

“I’m reflecting back on yesterday’s kickball game, and it was awesome,” Clough said in the August 3 video. “Here’s these kids out here playing kickball and they are such great athletes. They’re working hard; they’ve got athletic ability; they’re coachable.”

“Things are harder over here than people think. Families don’t have the money to provide for their children,” Clough said at the time. “These kids yesterday … I had kids there who didn’t have a pair of shoes.”

And some didn’t know how to play kickball.

That didn’t sit right with Clough and it didn’t sit right with a lot of people in Tremont and throughout Mount Desert Island.

Coretta Scott King once said, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”

Tremont has shown its greatness in multiple ways this past summer. The people of Tremont have worked together to not just rescue lobsterman Danny Closson from the water when his boat sunk in late August. They’ve made sure to lift up his family and support them financially while they worked through it.

Just last week, they rescued two sailors who’d turned over their boat.

On the Fourth of July, they helped put out another boat that caught fire and supported that family, too.

Those are immediate acts of community and kindness in emergency situations—the kind its volunteer fire department respond to all year long.

When Clough was worried about the kids of the community having what they needed after seeing, he decided that he had to gather a force and help.

What Clough has urged the town to do is something that has to be built, one donation, one kid, one event at a time.

Soon, Clough was meeting with Town Manager Jesse Dunbar who recognized the large amount of support behind Clough’s shared thoughts and knew that in order for this support to be effective the town needed a way to accept, track, and manage monetary donations.

The Tremont Select Board agreed and is setting up a reserve account (that will likely go to voters in May for final approval, but is in process already) to help kids that need it.

Sports gear has already been dropped off at Clough’s home.

Pop Thrift MDI gave $100 worth of gift certificates in $10 increments for people of the Tremont community who need it.

“I’m sorry guys,” Clough said during a Facebook video, August 30, hitting his chest with the palm of his hand, voice breaking. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s just the beginning. I want this community to keep getting together, doing better, being stronger. And I love you all.”

Along with the Tremont community, people from Bar Harbor and Trenton came to Sunday’s kickball and barbecue event to witness, to help, to put $20 in the bucket to help.

It’s a lot of kindness right there. It’s a lot of community. Even at the event, people grew misty eyed talking about that goodness along with that need when they took a minute away from laughing at the kickball hijinks.

Ashley Closson laughed as her youngest son sprinted across the kickball field, smiling, almost airborne.

“He’s been waiting on this all week,” she said. “All week.”

He wasn’t the only one.

The community kickball game had the feeling of a family reunion. There was ribbing, cheers, hugs, and sometimes someone got a talking to, but even that was done with love.

A grandmother bragged about her grandson’s new fishing pole. Another one proudly showed off her granddaughter’s face paint. She was visiting for the weekend. A man talked about how real people—authentic people—made him tear up.

There was a lot of that on Sunday. Tearing up. Realness. People authentically having a good time while also working to make sure the kids did too.

And of course, it was a real serious game of kickball with bunts, fouls, fly-balls, and some enthusiastic base coaching.

Jasmin and Robert Hebron brought the ice cream and Robert Hebron coached first base.

Taylor Kelley did the face painting.

“What a sweetheart she is. She’s always there to help whenever needed and damn, she came up with some good facepaints. It was awesome,” Clough said.

Acadia Provisions provided approximately 30 sandwiches.

“I got the best sandwiches from them today,” Clough said. “Some of those kids were like wow, they couldn’t believe it because some of those kids an Oscar Mayer bologna sandwich is like prime rib to them.”

Select Board Vice Chair McKenzie Jewett and Tad Jewett brought the hot dogs.

“You can’t have a sporting event without hot dogs,” Clough said. “They came through with them.”

Alex and Nancy Sawyer provided snacks. Allie McDermott did too and gave some soccer gear for the upcoming season.

Jeff Prentice provided the sound system for the base running contest and the national anthem.

“I was exhausted just watching the kids. They ran as hard as they could,” Clough said of the kids efforts during the Inside Homer Park Relay “They really worked at it.”

They ran; they shook hands after the event. They were quiet during the National Anthem. Some were brave enough to run with their moms or aunties or cousins from base to base. Some were brave enough to goad their dad into trying to tag them out at home.

“I’m so proud of them,” Clough said, voice breaking again. “It was awesome.”

He’s not the only one whose proud of the kids of Tremont. That was obvious on Sunday. But what was also obvious? It was the love.

All photos: Shaun Farrar/Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story

Disclosure: We’re pretty strict on disclosures here, so we want to disclose that we donated ice to this event, which feels weird to disclose, honestly.

There are a lot more photos on our Facebook page, which is here.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE AND HOW YOU CAN HELP.

The GoFundMe for the Closson Family

Clough’s Facebook video about the boat sinking

Clough’s Facebook video about community and the fundraising

To learn more about how you can help, you can connect with Clough via his Facebook page (linked above) or the Town of Tremont.

Acadia Provisions

Rob Hebron/Full House Painting

Pop Thrift MDI

Jeff Prentice/Liquid Courage Productions

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