ORONO – There was no big-money purse at stake… No colored jacket, shiny trophy, coveted title, or bragging rights.

It wasn’t even a picturesque postcard Vacationland day as organizers readied Penobscot Valley Country Club for the 15th annual Bud and Barbara Leavitt Memorial Golf Classic on an overcast and rainy Monday morning.

So why did 72 golfers – some from as far away as California, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida – travel all the way to Orono for this particular tournament?

The simple answer is to have fun and do their part to eventually eradicate cancer at the same time. For many, there is also a personal reason.

“I actually lost my mother to cancer 14 years ago, and it’s one of those diseases that hits everybody right in the stomach,” said Chris Allen, a native Oklahoman who had never been to Maine before and came all the way from Oklahoma City to play. “You can’t shake a family tree without finding somebody who has fallen out of it because of cancer.”

The 18-hole scramble tournament, which commemorates former Bangor Daily News Executive Sports Editor Bud Leavitt and his wife Barbara, benefits the Jimmy Fund, the fund-raising arm of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Both Leavitts died of cancer, Barbara in 1990 and Bud in 1994. The tournament was started in 1991 to honor Barbara, who was a big Jimmy Fund supporter.

Last year, the tournament raised $30,000 for the Jimmy Fund through entry fees, corporate sponsorships, a benefit auction, and donations. Tournament organizer Ryann Tash, a senior sales coordinator for corporate sponsor Unicel, said $15,000 had been raised so far through entries, sponsorships, and the sale of “Tee Sign” ads on each tee box. She expected the total to be at or above the $20,000 mark after the auction and other donations are totaled.

Allen, a director of sales for Syniverse Communications, was invited to play by fellow Syniverse official Mike Photos. Photos took a flight up from Tampa, Fla., to play.

“Last year is the first year I came up and played, but our company’s been a sponsor for five or six years,” said Photos. “Anything we can do to help our partner and the Jimmy Fund Foundation is a good thing. This is a fun event to be a part of.”

Apparently that holds true even if you’re working, although it didn’t seem much like work to Marianne Gibson, development officer for the Jimmy Fund golf program and one of only three female golfers playing in Monday’s tourney.

“I’ve been with the Jimmy Fund since October and with Hoyt’s Cinemas the 14 years before that,” Gibson said just before hitting a pretty 200-yard fairway wood shot that nestled onto the 17th green. “Hoyt’s was active with the Jimmy Fund and I’d been wanting to get into the non-profit sector.

“The fact they have a golf program was just icing on the cake for me. I might be at an event once a week either playing or doing promotional stuff. I played in one in Bradenton [Fla.] in March when we were having really bad weather, so that was pretty nice.”

Gibson was in the same foursome as Allen and Photos. So was Dave Sprague of Belgrade Lakes.

“It’s become a tradition for me,” said Unicel’s agent manager for the northern half of Maine. “I used to live in Mass., and the Jimmy Fund was part of life down there. With Unicel, I’ve been coming up for the last three or four years to be part of this tournament.”

Sprague has become one of the “regulars” Tash, who has been involved in the tourney for five years, looks forward to seeing.

“I see a lot of people I’ve gotten to know here each year and I enjoy that,” Tash said as the sun began to chase away the clouds in the afternoon sky. “It’s a chance to get out and it’s kind of become traditional for me. Plus, it’s a great way to network and get outside.”

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY GABOR DEGRE