DIXFIELD — Good buddies of a fellow firefighter who is battling cancer have decided to hold a softball match to help the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

Mary Dempsey, sister of the actor, will throw the first pitch.

All the members of the Dixfield/Peru team will be dressed in bright pink T-shirts with black lettering, while the team members from West Paris/Paris will wear black T-shirts with pink lettering.

“We’ve been talking about it for a while,” said Norm St. Pierre, chief of the West Paris Fire Department.

The teams had first wanted any funds raised at the July 10 match to go to Jon Longley, a West Paris volunteer firefighter, and a recently retired teacher at Dirigo Middle School in Dixfield.

But Longley said the Dempsey Center has helped him out so much, that he wanted any funds raised to go to the center.

“They’ve been so good to me and my family,” he said Wednesday night as he prepared to play in a scrimmage game between the two teams.

Many on the teams have been touched by cancer, so holding this fund-raising game, complete with pink T-shirts made a lot of sense, said Jason Hyde of the Dixfield Fire Co.

The West Paris/Paris team have nick-named themselves, the “Backdrafts.” Along with the team name on the back of each black and pink T-shirt is the slogan, “Putting cancer in remission.”

The Dixfield/Peru team have a slogan written in black on their pink T-shirts, “Kickin’ Ash.”

The 1 p.m., July 10 nine-inning game will take place at the Perham Field on High Street in West Paris.

Admission is by donation, with all proceeds going to the Dempsey Center.

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