There was one rule that everyone followed during Saturday’s bowling tournament at Just-In-Time Recreation.

Each team had to have at least one youth member on their three-person team.

“That is exactly what Bob and Lucy would have wanted,” said Amy Bushway. “They would have wanted to see kids bowling.”

Bob and Lucy Violette were doing exactly that on Oct. 25, 2023. They were teaching children their love for bowling.

Bushway’s 14-year-old son, Owen Bushway, was 4-years-old when he was taught how to bowl by Bob Violette. “He met Bob and never left,” Amy Bushway said of her son.

“His father and I are not bowlers, but here we are 10 years later,” said the organizer of the Just-In-Time’s youth league. “I have tried to quit this job three times and they just won’t let me,” Bushway said underneath a smile.

Plenty of others felt the same way about Bob and Lucy Violette.

Amy Bushway holds up a raffle item Saturday during the Bob and Lucy Violette Bowling Foundation fundraising tournament at Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston. Bushway runs the youth league at the alley and was helping raise funds for the foundation that supports youth bowling. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

“Bob’s love for the kids and the league was unbelievable,” said Mike Dumais as he watched his teenage daughter bowl. “Everybody at the bowling alley knew Bob and Lucy. They were like Norm on ‘Cheers,'” Dumais said about the popular TV character, Norm Peterson, who never moved from the same bar stool, but knew everyone.

Bob Violette was hosting his Wednesday night youth skills clinic when a gunman entered Just-In-Time and killed nine people on Oct. 25, 2023, part of the worst mass shooting in Maine history. Bob and Lucy Violette did not make it out of the bowling alley that night.

“Bowling is in the Violette family’s blood. I just happened to marry into it,” said Cassandra Violette, the president of the Bob and Lucy Violette Bowling Foundation.

“We have a huge turnout. We are so excited,” Cassandra Violette said about Saturday’s tournament, held in memory of her father- and mother-in-law. “The mission of our foundation is to grow youth bowling.”

“Bob wanted kids to feel good about something they were good at — bowling. But he also wanted children to go out and just have fun,” said Cassandra Violette. “That’s what I do. I bowl for fun.”

“Bob and Lucy were our family,” said Bushway, who runs the youth league. “They were the heart and soul of our league. Now it’s up to us. We are going to carry it on in their memory.”