Two East Lyme Middle School students recently decided to use their passion for basketball to help struggling members of the community.

Sixth graders Reid Upton Birkhamshaw and Alex Salerno started a three-on-three basketball tournament at the middle school to support the Brian Dagle Foundation in its efforts towards suicide prevention and mental health awareness.

Birkhamshaw and Salerno, who are members of the middle school’s Service Club, had been brainstorming ideas for service when they thought of their favorite sport: basketball. The two are both on East Lyme’s sixth grade basketball travel team.

“Since we both like basketball, we combined something that we like [with helping] people in the Brian Dagle Foundation,” Birkhamshaw said.

The students felt the foundation has an important mission and wanted to show their support.

Salerno said it was important to help a small organization that gives back to the community.

To prepare for the tournament, Salerno and Birkhamshaw worked over three weeks on a variety of tasks, including preparing a segment about the basketball tournament for the school’s morning news show, scheduling time to speak with the principal, working on permission slips and researching the nonprofit, said Kathleen Kuvalanka, a teacher and faculty coordinator for the service club.

Twenty-four students in fifth through eighth grades played in the March tournament, and three students volunteered as scorekeepers.

Birkhamshaw and Salerno raised $402 for the foundation.

The Dagle family, who started the local nonprofit a few years after Brian Dagle, a well-liked East Lyme High School graduate who loved playing lacrosse and football, died by suicide at age 19, said they were honored and appreciative of the students’ actions. The foundation offers grief support and suicide prevention education and programs, according to its website.

“We were honored by these middle school kids who never knew Brian but understand the importance of the foundation and its mission of healing and hope,” said Ann Irr Dagle, president and executive director of the Brian Dagle Foundation. “Maybe with their help we can reach the middle school children about the importance of reaching out to friends who may be struggling with sadness, depression or anxiety. These kids reaffirm the sense of community in our town.”

“We were and are very appreciative of their efforts,” said Paul T. Dagle, vice president of the Brian Dagle Foundation.

“These young boys took something they enjoy, brought it to their fellow students and through their donation to the Brian Dagle Foundation benefited the Foundation’s Suicide Education and Prevention Programs.”

Paul Dagle, who attended the opening round of the tournament, said he was totally impressed.

“Spending their time and energy to benefit others was a great learning experience not only for Alex and Reid but for the participating players as well,” he said. “They certainly provided an outstanding ‘Service’ to their fellow students and members of their community.”

About a third of the money was raised at the tournament, with another third matched by Birkhamshaw’s stepmother, Meagan Seacor, and father Gary Upton, and another third matched by Alex’s parents, Marc and Sara Salerno, said Kuvalanka.

Salerno’s father, Marc Salerno, also knows Paul Dagle, the co-founder and vice president of the Brian Dagle Foundation (Marc Salerno and Paul Dagle also both serve on the town’s Board of Selectmen),

Kuvalanka said there are already discussions about making the basketball tournament an annual event.

Over the past seven years, the middle school’s service club, which currently has about 25 regular members, has donated nearly $8,000 toward various projects, Kuvalanka said.

Club members participate in a variety of community service projects, including visiting with children and donating books to the daycare center at the Thames River Family Program and collecting blankets, towels and pet supplies for the Humane Society.

“I just want to give back to the community,” Salerno said.

“It’s just good to know that you’re helping people in need,” Birkhamshaw added.

k.drelich@theday.com