A message of hope in the wake of despair

Leah Brewington sings her song as her friend and fellow honoree Emma Terravecchia looks on. Right, Leah and Mary Stetson during awards ceremony. (Harrison Thorp photos) . Below, a picture of Mark Stetson. (Courtesy photo)

LEBANON - Mark Stetson’s shooting death seven years ago this month may have been a needless, senseless tragedy on the streets of New Haven, Conn., and it may have cut short a promising NFL career for the 6-foot-3, 245-pound defensive lineman.

But it wasn’t in vain. His spirit lives in a way as large as his considerable frame.

The Mark Stetson Memorial Fund, which annually sponsors a writing contest promoting tolerance and diversity, carries on his message of brotherhood and love that reaches across religion, race and culture to all the people of the world.

Yesterday at Lebanon Elementary School, fourth-grader Leah Brewington was awarded second place in the multi-state contest, earning herself a cash award and other prizes. Her classmate and friend, Emma Terravecchia, won an honorable mention.

Stetson, who was 23 when he was fatally shot outside a New Haven strip mall, told his mom, Mary Stetson, just minutes beforehand that he had gotten into an argument with radical Muslims at an interfaith meeting on the Southern Connecticut State University campus a couple of days before and was leery or reprisals.

“These radical Muslims were saying very unchristian-like things and he objected to it,” Stetson said yesterday at LES. “He was at a bookstore and telling me all about it.”

A street vendor who was outside the strip mall pleaded guilty in connection to the death and is now spending time in prison in Connecticut.

Mark Stetson’s strong beliefs about equal rights and tolerance may have brought about his death, but they are beliefs he’d worn on his shirtsleeve his whole life.

When he was in grade school he wrote his own paper on tolerance titled, “Equal Rights Instead of Fights” which won a town-wide writing contest in Wolfeboro where he grew up, Mary Stetson said.

Before playing fooball for SCSU he’d attended the University of Maine at Orono where he played for the Black Bears.  After an injury he transferred to the Connecticut college.

He was born on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Jan. 18, and that is when the writing contest begins each year.

“It seemed the best way to honor him,” she said, tears welling in her eyes.

Leah Brewington’s song titled “I’ve Had Enough of This” stresses the need for tolerance and understanding.  One stanza reads, “Many different colored skins, we come from different types of kin. We stare up at the same moon; we sleep under the same sky. So WHY, WHY, WHY, must people die because we’re different.”

A refrain that echoes through the song reads, “Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. I’ve had enough of this.”

Brewington softly sang her song to her class of fourth-graders as Mary Stetson looked on.

The writing contest is described on its website, markstetsonmemorial.org. States now participating include all of New England and Florida, Mary Stetson said. She said there were hundreds of entrants this year and they were judged by 15 educators, professionals, former teammates of Mark Stetson and family members.

The contest offers cash awards for the top finishers in two categories: kindergarten through fifth grade and sixth-12^th grade.