When Robert R. Card II walked into Schemengees Bar and Grille and opened fire last Wednesday, he was shooting at the very people who had once welcomed him into their ranks.
The regular Wednesday night cornhole tournament was underway at Schemengees when Card allegedly walked in and opened fire, killing seven people in the building. Eight people had already been killed at Just-In-Time Recreation the same evening.
Card had last participated in games and tournaments with members of the cornhole leagues at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at other Maine venues about a year ago.
“I knew Card,” Nick Wilson, founder of Maine Event Cornhole club in Saco, said. “He was like every other cornhole player — someone you would see and say ‘hey, how’s it going?’ and shoot the breeze with while at the bar getting a drink.”
Now, members of Maine’s cornhole community are coming to terms with the knowledge it was one of their own behind the state’s worst mass shooting in modern history.
It had been at least a year since Wilson had seen Card out playing in any tournaments, and said it seemed Card had started withdrawing from the cornhole community about a year and a half ago.
“I did not have a relationship with him like with some of the other guys,” Wilson said. “But if he walked by me I’d recognize him and say ‘hi.’”
Wilson said he knows eight of the cornholers who made it out alive that night. Among the ones who did not survive was Peyton Brewer-Ross.
“I knew Peyton and he’s one of the nicest guys you could ask for,” Wilson said. “I have played in round-robin tournaments with him and socialized with him.”
Instead of focusing on Card, Wilson said members of the cornhole community are fully occupied with taking care of their friends.
“The eight I knew that managed to survive and the others who lost loved ones are the ones we are touching base with,” Wilson said. “We want to make sure they know there are people that care about them.”
None of it has been easy, he said.
“It’s been hugs and being together,” Wilson said. “It’s talking about [the shooting] and talking about little league and football.”
Wilson describes those who play in cornhole leagues as family.
“Everyone from cornhole, and I mean everyone, are the most giving and caring people,” Wilson said. “We don’t care about your age, we don’t care about your gender, we don’t care about your race or whatever the hell your background is — we just all get together to throw some bags and shoot the breeze.”
Members from the Maine cornhole community gathered at Wilson’s Saco home the night after the shootings — as they do every Thursday — to do just that.
“We threw bags and we were with each other,” Wilson said. “I know that happened with other clubs at other homes because [the shootings] were not going to stop us from doing what we do.”
Clubs from around the country are reaching out offering emotional and financial support to the survivors and families of the victims. Here in Maine, clubs are organizing events to raise their own funds for the families.
“We are looking to take this tragedy and turn it into something terrific,” Wilson said. “Right now it’s a bunch of grieving cornhole people coming together to make sure these families are taken care of.”
Like so many affected by last week’s shooting, Wilson and his fellow cornholers are looking to the time when some sense of normalcy returns to their lives.
“We are very resilient,” Wilson said. “We grieve together and we throw together, that’s what defines us.”
