Ben Dyer competes left-handed Saturday at a cornhole tournament at Sliders Sports Pub in Lewiston. Dyer was at Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston on Oct. 25 when a gunman killed and injured people playing cornhole. Dyer lost much of the functionality of his right hand when he was shot multiple times. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — Ben Dyer said he worried about playing in a cornhole tournament Saturday at Sliders Sports Pub to raise money for Lisbon High School’s Class of 2025.

And who could blame him?

The last time he tried to play, on Oct. 25 at Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston, a mass shooter fired as many as five bullets that tore up his right hand, arm and shoulder and left him in a pool of blood, surrounded by dead, dying and wounded friends.

But after 19 days in the hospital, weeks of recovery and a growing determination to reclaim his life, Dyer decided he had to return to a game he loved.

Unable to rely on his right hand, which remains almost useless, Dyer had no choice except to toss the game’s oversized beanbags with his left hand for the first time. It didn’t go especially well, with one toss landing only halfway to its goal and most of the rest falling short or off to one side or the other.

It wasn’t about winning, though.

“It’s about showing up,” Dyer said. “We’re here. We’re doing it.”

Dyer, 47, wasn’t the only Schemengees survivor to compete, but nobody else had to overcome so many grievous wounds. Everyone who’d been at Schemengees, though, had to swallow their fears to come inside the crowded Lewiston sports pub.

Alan Nickerson from Auburn, who spent two nights in the hospital after taking a bullet in his groin, said the value of competing again is that the survivors can “come together and support each other.”

“It’s been an interesting journey for a story we didn’t want,” Nickerson said. “The people that were there that night, we are family. We’ve grown so much closer.”

Alan Nickerson gives back a raffle ticket Saturday to each of the Lisbon students selling tickets at a cornhole tournament to benefit Lisbon High School’s senior class. Nickerson was injured by a gunman on Oct. 25 at Schemengees Bar & Grill during another cornhole tournament. Students from left, selling tickets, are Bruce Merrill; Olivia Kuietauskas, class president; Hannah Card; and Chloe McDaniel, class secretary. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Nickerson said he participated in previous tournaments to help Lisbon High School and didn’t want to miss this one.

Kathy Greenlaw, a special education teacher at the high school and advisor for the junior class, said she hoped to raise more than $5,000 on Saturday that would help cover the tab for Project Graduation next year.

“This is about community to me,” said Chloe McDaniel, a junior helping to sell raffle tickets.

“The vibe of this place is immaculate,” she said, “and everyone is so friendly.”

Sher Stanton from Lewiston, who escaped physical injury at Schemengees, said that events like the charity tournament “are very therapeutic” for the survivors. Sliders, she said, “is just a nice place to come.”

Tyler Babb, one of the owners of Sliders, checked in about 100 people as they entered for the tournament.

Wearing a shirt honoring Joseph Walker, one of the 18 people cut down by the gunman, Babb greeted Dyer when he showed up shortly before noon.

“We’re here for you — all of us,” Babb told Dyer.

Ben Dyer, right, and Keela Smith observe a moment of silence Saturday before a cornhole tournament to benefit the Lisbon High School senior class at Sliders Sports Pub in Lewiston. Dyer was at Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston on Oct. 25 when a gunman killed and injured people playing cornhole. Dyer was one of the people injured. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Dyer’s girlfriend, Keela Smith, of Ellsworth, said people probably can’t appreciate how hard it was for Dyer to swallow his fears and attend.

“This man, he’s the bravest human I’ve ever met,” she said.

Smith said it hasn’t been an easy road.

The night of the shooting, she’d just gotten to work as an overnight nurse at a hospital in Bar Harbor when she heard the shocking news from his sister-in-law that Dyer had been shot.

She said it took a moment to process that there had been a mass shooting and that her boyfriend of two years had been badly hurt and rushed to Central Maine Medical Center. She remained with it enough, though, to make sure his brother got a phone call.

Ben Dyer, left, exchanges a fist bump with Jeremy Angell of South Berwick after their first game Saturday at a cornhole tournament at Sliders Sports Pub in Lewiston. Dyer was at Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston on Oct. 25 when a gunman killed and injured people playing cornhole. Dyer lost much of the functionality of his right hand when he was shot multiple times. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

In tears, Smith got the green light to leave immediately and was soon on the road to Lewiston as quickly as she could go. She watched Maine State Police cars fly by her on the highway as they raced to join the manhunt for the killer.

When she arrived at the hospital, Smith said, they took her to a room full of counselors and social workers. There were no doctors present, which she took as a bad sign.

But surgeons successfully staunched his bleeding and began the long process of patching up Dyer “that night that changed our lives,” Smith said.

For the longest time, she couldn’t even hold his hands because of the injuries. But Dyer is getting better, she said.

“We wanted a simple, private life,” said Smith, who’s been with Dyer for a couple of years but has known him since they were in school together in Madawaska.

“We didn’t ask for this craziness,” she said. She remains “so angry this guy took over our simple life” and turned it upside down.

Alan Nickerson takes aim Saturday during a cornhole tournament at Sliders Sports Pub in Lewiston. Nickerson was injured by a gunman on Oct. 25 at Schemengees Bar & Grill during another cornhole tournament. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Robert Card, the shooter, killed himself a day and a half after the massacre at Schemengees and Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston. His body was found hours later in a recycling trailer in Lisbon.

Dyer and Smith said they talk about what happened often.

But they also try to focus on the future they want.

And though Dyer said it didn’t matter to him that he couldn’t yet play cornhole well again, he clearly would like to do better.

Greenlaw asked him, “How’s your left hand going?”

Dyer gave her a thumbs-down and blew a raspberry.