“It’s stunning. Look at those eagles. The eagles represent strength. There’s a lot of strength around here.” – Elizabeth Bradley

“Absolutely gorgeous. I think he’d love it.” – Christine Babcock speaking about her son, Nick Babcock

“It’s another way of saying, ‘OK. They’re still with us.'” – Col. Robert Meyer

Friends, family remember JROTC crash victims with art
JROTC crash victims are memorialized

LEWISTON – They came to Lewiston High School on Friday night to remember three they lost one year ago.

They remembered, and celebrated the lives, through art.

The art was a huge glass etching that stretches across glass walls and doors. It’s visible inside the school overlooking the memorial garden, and outside in the garden looking in. The art features colorful vines, flowers and three soaring eagles.

The eagles represent Nicholas Babcock, 17, Teisha Loesberg, 16, and Shannon Fortier, 15, who died a year ago, along with a flight instructor, when their plane crashed during a training mission over Newry.

“Absolutely gorgeous,” said Nick’s mother, Christine Babcock, as she stared and smiled a little. “I think he’d love it,” she said. Nick loved eagles.

“It can be no better. Beautiful,” agreed Nick’s dad, Phil Babcock. “Nick did know beautiful things. He’d like to see his name in stone too,” he said.

At the gathering there were no speeches, no prayers.

People gathered in small groups. Some greeted each other with smiles, hugs or handshakes. A few sat somberly on benches. Students wearing identical blue shirts that read, “Meet the Challenge, Maine 891, JROTC” hung tight.

Visitors found the bricks of the garden floor that featured Nick’s, Teisha and Shannon’s names. Everyone gazed at the etching.

Lewiston artist Clint Magoon created the sprawling artwork, donating the last three-and-a- half weeks, as a gift to Lewiston High School. He did all the work freehand. He used tools to carve out glass, then painted the flowers and greenery. He left the eagles frosted, giving them an ethereal look.

Magoon spent hours on the piece, in-between working at his Hudson job, “because I just wanted to do something for the the high school community. I told them if they could use my services, I was there for them.”

His daughter, Crystal, went to school with the ROTC students. When asked if he was satisfied with his creation, he said, “It’s for them … I hope they like it.”

They did.

“It’s just a beautiful piece. It’s a good way to remember them,” said Amanda Russell, 18, who was in Junior ROTC all four years in high school, and was at the summer training camp when the plane crashed into Barker Mountain.

“The eagles represent them, how young they were, their flight. It was just really sad,” she said.

Russell is a member of the Class of 2007 who will soon be leaving for college in New York. Future students and teachers may ask about the story behind the art, while others may just enjoy the beauty, she said.

Alicia McIntire, Kirsten Walter and Bridgette Bartlett stood together, staring at the glass.

“I worked with Teisha in our Lots to Garden program,” Walter said. “So to have the flowers and all the greenery, definitely I feel good about it. It represents Teisha.”

She liked the fact the flowers and vines seem to spread and spread, as if the art was growing with energy, just like Teisha, she said.

Lewiston High Assistant Principal Elizabeth Bradley said there couldn’t be a better gift to the school. “It’s stunning. Look at those eagles. The eagles represent strength. There’s a lot of strength around here.”

Junior ROTC Col. Robert Meyer agreed. He and his students just returned from this year’s ROTC summer training in Newry.

“All week we’ve been out at the same location, seeing the beautiful mountains and rivers, thinking of the kids,” Meyer said. He and others would look at the scenery “and think they were up there with us in spirit.”

He got the same kind of feeling, he said, when he looked at the etching.

Everyone at Lewiston High has been watching Magoon work on it for weeks, he said. Now that it’s done, Meyer said he found it beautiful, inspiring, comforting. “It’s another way of saying, ‘OK. They’re still with us.'”