By Frank J. Diekmann
There are a lot of unique stories in credit unions that are also about doing good, and among them is a 30-year-old basketball tournament that has now seen its last basket scored—but only after raising some $750,000 for an important cause.
Three decades ago, with no idea whether it would last longer than its initial go, Jon Paradise created the C-U Swish-Out Childhood Cancer Challenge, a three-on-three basketball tournament that raised funds for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program.
That first year was a pretty simple affair, held at an elementary school in the Portland area with seven teams competing. The event raised 575 bucks. It’s come a long way since then.
And so has Paradise, who is SVP at Town & Country FCU (which is a sponsor of the event) and who prior to that was with the Maine Credit Union League.
“It’s been going on 30 years, and 30 years of anything is a long time,” Paradise said. “When we first started it, I was literally a newlywed who’d been married a month. I had no kids. I wasn't yet 30. I was still playing regularly. Fast forward 30 years and all those things have changed, for the better, which is great.”
Indeed, enough has changed that Paradise went on to have three children, all of whom have played in the tournament, as has his wife.
“It was so much fun to see my kids play. My son and I played on an adult team this year,” Paradise shared. “It made it more special for sure.”
But as special as the C-U Swish-Out Childhood Cancer Challenge had become, Paradise said other things have also changed since the mid-1990s.
Going Out With a Win
“I got to a point where in the last couple of years I'm like, you know, I want to end on a high note. People still show up, people still participate, but I think the pandemic has made it hard to get people reengaged. I wanted to end on a high note, and we did. All good things must come to an end. It doesn’t mean I’m still not passionate about the cause. I just didn’t want it to die a slow death. We had great participation this year. Why not go out, tell everyone you’ve been a great audience, and let’s move on?”
Moving on won’t be easy, of course. It never is for anyone who has ever really had a love affair with a sport.
“I love basketball, always have. I played for years and years,” said Paradise, who credited his father, Dr. Noel Paradise, for helping him to become “passionate” about the game. “He loved basketball.”
When Dr. Paradise passed away in 2004, the C-U Swish-Out Childhood Cancer Challenge added his name as a tribute.
How it Came to Be
It had been a decade earlier when Paradise first conceived of combining a couple of passions to do good things.
“I had been involved in the Maine Children’s Cancer program, an organization I thought a lot of. It was in its infancy in 1994,” said Paradise. “I thought, let’s combine a couple of things and see if we can raise some money for this cause. And, selfishly, I can play and have some fun that way. It just kept growing from there, thanks to the people. I said at the last event, ‘Events like this don’t happen for 30 years if people don’t show up.’ That’s at the heart of it whether it’s sponsors, community, or participants, and we were lucky that people kept showing up and it kept growing every year.”
Paradise said he is proud that the Swish-Out has been the longest, continuous-running, 3-on-3, co-ed, charity basketball tournament in Maine.
How did Paradise get the word out in the early years? Having also worked in radio, he said a radio station threw in some free ads. By the end of the tournament, he said multiple “media outlets were spreading the word and helping recruit and it really became a community embraced event.”
Headed Off to College
That community support included a move to a larger venue. After several years at the elementary school, Paradise said he developed a friendship with the athletic director at the University of Southern Maine, who made its Hill Gymnasium on the school’s campus in Gorham available at no cost for the last 23 years. That helped to accommodate the 50 to 60 teams and some 200 or so players who had been participating across what had grown to 10 different divisions.
Each team paid $75 to be part of the Challenge. Most teams were co-ed, but as years progressed the tournament did add some single gender divisions.
Among this year’s participants in the high school division were Miss Maine Basketball 2024, Maddie Fitzpatrick, and several members of the Class AA Boys state champion Windham Eagles.
The Rules
For those wondering about the specifics, the games were to 15 points, with each basket counting as one. Games were played on a quarter court, with a running 15-minute clock. The game was over when a either a team hit 15 points or time expired—Paradise said 90% of games were decided by points. Players called their own fouls, and after five fouls were called players were awarded a free throw. According to Paradise, that rule kept the fouls in check as teams were happy to play for a charity, but didn’t want to send someone to the charity stripe.
“We tweaked the rules a little as the years went on. Just like anything you find out what works, what doesn’t work, what needs some changes,” he explained. “But for the most part the way it was in 1994 and the way it was in 2024 were very, very similar.”
It was a double-elimination tournament, so everyone not only got to play at least two games, they also received some lovely parting gifts, as they say, including water bottles, t-shirts, gift certificates to places like Dick’s Sporting Goods, and more.
Things Could Get Chippy
The tournament may have been for a good cause, but it’s also a competition—the tournament did include an ultra-competitive division--and Paradise acknowledged some games could get a bit chippy.
“That’s the nature of it. The vast majority were great, great sports, but like anything as you get closer to the finals the competitive juices of people come out. It’s like, hey, we really can win this. There could be some games that got heated. But we had a guy who was a volunteer for 25 years who was just an expert at playing the bad cop, if you will, and at reminding people this is for charity, this is why we’re here. Honestly, at the end of the day, most people left with a smile on their face and said, ‘We’ll be back next year,’ and they did keep coming back.”
In Paradise’s case, he kept coming back as the organizer, but not as a player, as all athletes have to eventually make concessions to age they don’t want to make (with the exception of LeBron, of course), with their bodies always happy to remind them of past glory. Paradise acknowledged it was true for him, as well.
He said he played almost every year of the tournament, with the exception of the last few years due to some “nagging injuries.”
Even After Family Loss, Many Returned
“One of the most satisfying aspects of it was to see people who had had a child with cancer go through the program and come back year after year and, in some cases, the child had lost their fight and passed away,” he shared. “But the parents or the relative thought it was such a special event they wanted to continue on, so they played in memory of their children. I think that’s a testament to how special the program was and is and how deeply this program connected with a lot of people.”
Some Tips from the Coach
When asked how much of his time the C-U Swish-Out Childhood Cancer Challenge required, Paradise laughed the laugh of someone who doesn’t want to admit just how much time they clocked. But he said it was likely more than 250 hours a year.
As for his advice to anyone else in credit unions who might want to stage something similar, Paradise immediately said, “Do it!”
But then, when pressed for some of the pragmatic lessons learned, he advised, “Don’t be afraid to partner with people. You can’t do it all yourself. I was lucky enough to realize that pretty early on. It’s your baby, but to have your baby grow up and be as successful as possible it takes a lot of hands. I think sometimes people are afraid to have others help or to take their suggestions. Early on, I’d like to think I matured and recognized that. If they want to help, absolutely, bring them in. I would always joke with people who would volunteer that ‘You’ve signed a lifetime contract.’ And the vast majority of them were there every year.”
A Group Decision
So, why not pass the ball and have someone else keep the fundraiser alive?
“We were a very tight-knit little family. Everybody was on board. It wasn’t just me,” he said of the decision to make the 2024 Challenge the last swish. “We talked as a volunteer group. It takes a lot of work and energy and I think we were all in agreement we wanted it to end on an up-note. I said, ‘If anyone wants to revisit it at any point, I’m more than happy to get them the particulars. I am happy to share’.”
A Lot of Sharing
But Paradise has already done a lot of sharing. The 2024 event (a local news report on it can be found here) raised a record $61,000, which helped the tournament to collectively achieve the $750,000 milestone in funds raised to help children with cancer during its 30-year run.
And that’s a pretty good score.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief of CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info. Mr. Diekmann is also author of several new book, including the brand new “The Last Lyric,” a humorous satire about a murder investigation at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in which every line of dialogue is either a classic pop/rock song title or lyric. Available on Amazon, Apple iBook, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Mr. Diekmann is also author of a non-fiction compilation of the very best & worst he has seen and heard in covering more than 500 CU meetings and conferences, “501 Name Tags: How Everything You Need to Know About Business Can Be Learned at a Conference & Forgotten in the Trade Show.” It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Lulu, and Smashwords.