BANGOR – Boxing has enabled Joey Gamache to see the world, develop self-confidence, and meet many friends on his way to winning two world championships.

Now that his professional career is winding down, Maine’s best-known boxer is supporting the game which has brought him such pleasure and notoriety. Gamache appeared Thursday morning at three area high schools to promote Bangor’s Police Athletic League boxing program.

Gamache sat at a small table in the Bangor Christian School gym at noontime Friday, autographing photos and posing for pictures with students as they took their lunch break. Gamache chatted with them about boxing and recounted some of his career highlights.

He also visited Bangor High and John Bapst.

Gamache, who has been semi-retired since his eighth-round TKO loss to Julio Cesar Chavez on Oct. 12, hopes to return to the ring.

“I’m going back to New York next week,” said Gamache, who has been working with his father in Joe Gamache Sr.’s Lewiston drywall business. “I’m trying to stay affiliated with the boxing game. I’ll be doing some training, managing and possibly some fighting. I’m not sure yet.”

In the meantime, Gamache wants to give amateur boxing in Maine a boost with his presence.

“We want to rejuvenate boxing, get kids interested, and let them know that for some that don’t like baseball, football or hockey, that there’s boxing,” Gamache said. “They can take a look at someone like me and what I’ve accomplished, and realize they can do the same thing with a lot of hard work and perserverance.”

Gamache appeared Thursday with Bangor police officer Paul White, who heads the PAL boxing program, and Exeter boxer Travis Bartlett. White, a former amateur boxer, has spent five years working with area youngsters interested in trying the sport.

“Five years ago, the Gamaches came up and helped promote it [PAL boxing], and that’s how we got started,” White said. “Team PAL and Team Gamache are going to try to start running amateur shows and try to work together to revitalize boxing in the area.”

White would like to have boxing become a regular event in Bangor, possibly in conjunction with some of Maine’s pro fighters, to help generate interest in the sport and develop more young boxers.

Gamache might step back into the ring to help the cause.

“I think I’m going to fight again,” Gamache said. “We’re talking about possibly bringing a fight here to Bangor, which would be my first fight back.”

White is a believer in the PAL program, which is designed to provide troubled kids with a fun, structured, learning environment.

“In the police department, we really want to reach some of these other kids and get them off the street,” White said. “This is a way to get to some of them.”

Bartlett is among the boxers who have already benefited from Bangor’s PAL program. The heavyweight fighter, who now lives in Bangor, recently won the Northern New England Golden Gloves title and finished second in the New England Tournament of Champions competition held in Lowell, Mass.

Bartlett, who has been boxing with the Bangor PAL for about 18 months, is excited about the possibility of a resurgence in amateur boxing in Maine and wants to have a part in the process. He believes Gamache’s presence is a big plus.

“When I was younger, Joey Gamache was God to me,” Bartlett said.

“If we’re holding fights more often, I think maybe it will start to catch on,” he added.