WATERVILLE – Earning a spot on one of the Lobster Bowl’s star-studded squads is a big honor for the players selected, but, to paraphrase Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, with that great honor comes great responsibility.

Besides sacrificing time from their last summer before entering college or “the real world”, the 88 players participating in the game are also asked to help raise money for the Shriners Childrens Hospitals and Burns Institutes.

This year, the players responded in a big way, raising a record $40,000 for the cause.

“We had so many go over $1,000, it’s unbelievable.,” said Jason Fuller, the event’s athletic director. “We’ve had seven or eight kids go over $1,000, and I know that’s the highest that’s ever been.”

Several players raised well over $2,000, including Edward Little’s Chris LeClair and Garrett Young of Livermore Falls. Both chalked it up to the generosity of their respective communities.

“We just tried to do the best we could to get out there and talk to everyone we could,” said LeClair, who will play flanker for the East squad in Friday’s game. “We sent out letters to a lot of people and we just got donations from a lot more people than we expected. It worked out great.”

“We got a bunch of businesses to donate,” said Young, who will play linebacker for the West. “They were all pretty generous about it. We had a lot of $100 donations.”

Both LeClair and Young were familiar with the Lobster Bowl and the children it benefits before players made a trip to the Shriners hospital in Springfield, MA. last month. LeClair has a cousin from New Hampshire who is a Shriner, while Young’s family has a Lobster Bowl alumnus.

“My cousin (Brian Dube) played in it 10 years ago and he told me all about it,” Young said. “He told me what the hospital was like and everything, so I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. My whole family helped me fundraiser.”

For the 15th Annual Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic this year, each player was asked to raise a minimum of $300, double the minimum of previous years. To give them a little more incentive in their fund-raising, organizers bussed them down to Springfield a month earlier than usual. In the past, the players visited the hospital during the week of training camp.

“It definitely helped me on the drive for raising money,” said Lewiston’s Nick Lajoie, who will be playing defensive line for the East. “I wasn’t doing that great of a job and then we got down there and it was like, wow. They make a big difference down there.”

“It was a big eye-opener just seeing those kids,” he added. “It’s for a great cause. I’m real happy that I can raise money for them.”

The players said they enjoyed their time with the children even though communicating was difficult because few of the patients spoke English. Young, who said he knows a little Spanish, talked with some of the kids but said the most memorable part of the trip was the smile he got from a child when he gave him a hat.

The trip will probably resonate with the players long after those children are gone and the money they’ve raised has been spent.

“I just think it’s important to help people that maybe aren’t as lucky as some of us,” said LeClair, who raised a whopping $2,625. “To see them first-hand and see the rehab and therapy that they have to go through still kind of sticks with me.”

The money raised by the players should be just about enough to cover the cost of holding the week-long training camp at Colby College, Fuller said. Another 55 cheerleaders participating in the game who are spending the week at Central Maine Community College also visited the hospital and raised money, though their total wasn’t available.