LYNN – Tonight, when the North meets the South in the 48th edition of the Agganis All-Star Football Classic, the players will represent more than a famous athlete and his personal legacy.The football players – as well as those who participated in the baseball, softball, basketball and soccer games earlier this week – represent the efforts of a large, tight-knit and generational community whose roots took hold during the era in which Harry Agganis played for Lynn Classical and remain rock-solid today.As Thomas L. Demakes, president of Old Neighborhood Foods in Lynn, said Sunday at the Agganis awards breakfast, The Agganis games, and the foundation, are a celebration of Lynn as much as they are a celebration of Harry Agganis, the Golden Greek, who died in 1955 at the age of 26 while a member of the Boston Red Sox.After Agganis died, Attorney Charles Demakis (uncle of Demakes) prevailed upon the Red Sox and the Daily Item’s publisher Peter Gamage to help establish a scholarship foundation in his memory. The foundation has grown exponentially over the years and one of the reasons is that its leaders – in some cases – have literally kept it in the family. Today, Attorney Thomas C. Demakis – Charles’ son – is the chairman of the foundation and among its Trustees are Demakes; Peter H. Gamage, the current publisher of The Item; and Gregory J. Agganis, Harry’s nephew.The foundation’s board of trustees is figuratively a family affair, too. Stephen L. Smith played in the Agganis game; Martin C. Goldman was Agganis’ attorney; and Helen Zimman is the widow of Harold O. Zimman, one of Agganis’ friends, mentors and benefactors who chaired the foundation for its first 37 years.There has always been a strong partnership between the foundation and the Lynn community. At its core, the Agganis Foundation – and many of those who work to make the various games happen – are Lynn-based.”We might not all still live in Lynn, but we grew up here and we all still care about the city,” said Edward M. Grant, the foundation’s president whose public-relations/publishing company is based in Lynn. “We take a lot of pride in the city, and see the Agganis games and foundation as very much a reflection of all that is good about the city.”Grant, treasurer Michael H. Shanahan, Demakis, Demakes, Smith, and fellow trustee Thomas P. Iarrobino all have Lynn roots while trustees Peter C. Pedro Jr., Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. and former school superintendent Nicholas P. Kostan still live in the city.The foundation believes so strongly in community involvement that one of its principal awards is named after Paul F. Cavanagh, an FBI agent who died while on duty in 1990 in a plane crash. Cavanagh was a Lynner and a strong booster of local sports, both through his involvement with the Foundation and with his work with the Lynn English Football Boosters. The English fieldhouse bears his name.This year, the community service award named in honor of Cavanagh went to former Lynn Department of Community Development director Jansi Chandler, who also served as managing director of Economic Development for the Boston Redevelopment Authority and who chaired Girls Inc.’s $11 million campaign for its new facility at the former Lynn Shoe School, in the shadow of fabled High Rock Tower – whose rehab she began as CD director.Chandler was also born in Lynn, raised in Marblehead, and lives in Boston; and has for 17 years served the Agganis cause – sometimes literally, selling hot dogs and such with Shanahan and Pedro, or doing whatever else needed to keep the games running smoothly.Hand-in-hand with the Cavanagh Award is the Dr. Elmo Benedetto Athletics Award, which – in a very big way – is also a community service award in that it honors those who go above and beyond their usual roles in the field of sports. This year’s winner, former Bishop Fenwick softball coach Ed Henry, not only coached his team to eight state titles, but also has mentored a generation of new teachers and coaches.Final