MCI senior honors slain classmate

PITTSFIELD – Every year, during their final semester at Maine Central Institute, seniors are required to complete a senior project – something that illustrates the skills and knowledge they have gained and reflects their personal interests and values.

Clint Lasselle Jr. of Pittsfield chose to honor the memory of his friend and slain classmate, Joshua Sawyer, by creating a scholarship.

Sawyer, 15, was a standout athlete and well-liked student at MCI. He was killed in March 2006 while target shooting with his brother and another teenager in Norridgewock.

Cody Rioux, 15, was charged with shooting Sawyer in the neck with a gun that was so ineffectively sighted that it would go 35 inches lower and 16 inches to the right when shot. Sawyer was obscured by bushes when Rioux shot him in the neck, and he died at the scene.

Lasselle said he didn’t want anyone to forget his friend.

“I want the kind of person he was to be remembered,” Lasselle said this week. “He was the one that made everyone laugh. He was always the hardest working on the [athletic] field. He was my friend, and this is personal with me.”

Lasselle said his goal is to collect $10,000 that will sustain an annual $1,000 scholarship that will be presented to an athlete with Sawyer’s qualities. He said the gift will become effective in 2008, which is the year Sawyer would have graduated.

Lasselle also has planned a series of fundraisers, including a spaghetti supper, a yard sale and a bottle drive. He said he is visiting local businesses for donations.

Anyone who wants to donate may send gifts to the Joshua Sawyer Scholarship Fund, c/o TD Banknorth, Main Street, Pittsfield 04967. Lasselle may be contacted at 487-6231 or c_j_lasselle@hotmail.com.