A glass will be raised Saturday night and a toast will be offered. Tears will be chased away by hugs and laughter, and the memory of one man will comfort a gathering of friends and family for another year.

Kevin MacDonald’s life ended on a terrible October night in 2000 after a bullet from an angry cab driver’s gun went through his chest. He was 23 years old, a star athlete and graduate of Cheverus High and Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. He was better known for his big smile and bigger joy of living that easily pulled others into his life.

MacDonald and his older brother, Brian True, had just moved to Austin, Texas, to work for Vignette, Inc., then a successful software company. On a Saturday night they were joined by two other Vignette employees at a sports pub to watch former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson fight Andrew Golota.

The four colleagues drank beer as they watched the fight. Afterward, MacDonald and Lance Hughes shared a cab to their homes. Hughes was legally drunk and said something that angered the cab driver, who stopped the car.

Hughes and the cabbie got out. MacDonald, who was sober according to police reports, tried to calm the situation. Hughes was shot in the back three times by the cabbie and died on the street. MacDonald was shot once. The bullet went through a lung and severed his spine.

The cabbie said the two tried to rob him. Other cab drivers arriving at the scene told police the cabbie had a bad temper. At the hospital, MacDonald told police his version. He died within hours of being shot.

Police arrested the cabbie, Wayne Lambert Jr., 53. He later died in his jail cell, awaiting trial on capital murder charges for the two deaths.

What happened so quickly that night stunned MacDonald’s friends and family.

“I don’t like to think or talk about Austin. It will always be that way,” said Kate Ondrejko in an email before she arrived in Portland. She met MacDonald at Le Moyne and the two were in a relationship that had ended. “I felt horrific, gut-wrenching grief … which was magnified by my compassion and love for Kevin’s family.”

On Labor Day weekend 2002, Ondrejko came alone to Portland to be with MacDonald’s mother, Diane True, and the rest of the family. “When I left I said ‘Hey, maybe I’ll try to get a little group to come next year.’ ”

Which is why every Labor Day weekend nearly 14 years after his death is Kev’s Weekend. Friends book flights from elsewhere in the country well in advance and others plan 10-hour car drives to Portland. Many stay at Diane True’s house.

Sometimes seven or eight friends come. This weekend 16 friends from around the country will join nearly 20 family members and other friends from Maine for a private dinner on the Portland waterfront. Some may play golf Saturday morning or shop in the Old Port. There will be other outings or activities or simply hanging out with each other.

Mostly they’ll talk and laugh and maybe cry. It’s a annual gathering that started in grief and eventually transitioned to a celebration of MacDonald’s impact on their lives. He was the glue that brought them together and amazingly, has kept them coming back for Kev’s Weekend year after year.

“The night before he died we talked on the phone for over an hour,” said Frank Lackee, a baseball teammate at Cheverus who also went to Le Moyne. “We talked about things and life in general.

“At the end of the conversation I said, ‘Love you, man.’ He said, ‘Love you, too, Fives.’ He gave me the nickname Frankie Five Angels our freshman year in college and it stuck with my college friends to this day.”

Lackee won’t forget the moment he heard MacDonald was dead. “I was in my second year at dental school in New York City and I just fell to my knees and started sobbing uncontrollably. Next to my dad’s death, it was the hardest thing I have ever gone through.”

Emmett Hurley, another classmate from Le Moyne, was at a friend’s wedding in New York. His future wife, Tracy, also part of their Le Moyne circle, was in veterinary school in Illinois when she heard the tragic news. She immediately called Hurley but got his family instead. MacDonald had spent time with Hurley’s family. Grief-stricken, they went to the wedding to tell Emmett.

Thursday afternoon, Tracy and Emmett Hurley were in their car driving to Portland after dropping their three children with family in Syracuse. Tracy remembered the friendly underclassman from Maine with the wicked accent who desperately needed a clothing makeover.

“He was so in the ’80s but we got him to change,” she said, laughing.

Emmett remembers the athlete who could have played for the Le Moyne baseball and basketball teams but was happier playing intramural games. “He was always the guy you were recruiting to play on your team.”

Although MacDonald had a little problem with pumpkins. His senior year, he shared a large house in Syracuse with Lackee, Hurley and several other males. On Halloween, Lackee was walking back from a party with his girlfriend when he saw his car and its smashed windshield. A smashed pumpkin was nearby.

Lackee was furious. The next morning he walked into MacDonald’s room and raged at the neighborhood kids.

“He looked down to get his thoughts together as he often did and said, ‘Ahhh Fives, uhhh, I will be taking care of that for you.’ He said they were playing toss with pumpkins and he accidentally hit my windshield. He could have never told me and I wouldn’t have known.”

So many stories told and retold on Kev’s Weekend. Lindsey True was 14 when her brother died. He had been away at college and moved to San Francisco before going to Austin. Then he was gone from her life. The stories, she said Thursday night, filled a gap. “His friends give us so much.”

Twelve years of coming to Portland. Male friends brought girlfriends and female friends brought boyfriends. Diane True has watched them get married and start families. Ondrejko got married but she’ll always be a daughter to True.

“Kev made you better. He made you braver. He was a life force,” said Ondrejko. “He had nicknames for friends and family members that were like terms of endearment.”

A sign above MacDonald’s tombstone reads: Kev made us breathe easier. “That couldn’t be more true,” said Erin Quane, who also comes back every Labor Day weekend. “He had a calmness. He took everything in stride.

“The True family opened up their homes and more importantly their hearts for us. They make us breathe easier and I guess that’s where Kev gets it from.”

Yes, high school baseball fans still remember MacDonald as the Cheverus High pitcher with the lively fastball. The school named its baseball field in MacDonald’s memory. He was a starter on the Andrews Post team that qualified for the national American Legion tournament in Fargo, North Dakota.

Those closest to MacDonald remember him for more. Brian, his big brother at 41, has a young son he named Kevin. Through stories young Kevin is learning about the Uncle Kevin he can’t touch in the physical sense.

Sometime in the years ahead, young Kevin will take part in Kev’s Weekend. He’ll feel his uncle come alive.

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