Published: July 29, 2007 11:40 pm    PrintThis  

Locals will run for NHS alum who died of cancer

If there is any doubt that running is a team sport, it will be quashed with the 48th Yankee Homecoming 5K and 10-Mile races tomorrow night.

The team representing the memory of Nicole Lemieux Knight will be prominently on display, donned in identical T-shirts, running for an exceptional cause for an exceptional person.

Knight passed away on Oct. 14, 2005, following a four-year battle with breast cancer, three weeks after the birth of her daughter, Sofia Lily; roughly one year after marrying her husband Andrew, whom she met in Paris in 2002.

Andrew and Sofia live in his native Birmingham, England.

One of the great things marathons, walks and road races generate is exposure, and charities and other fundraising efforts have been the biggest beneficiaries. That alone is the goal that Nonie Olson, organizer of the Nicole Lemieux Knight Scholarship running contingent, has set.

“This is my first time ever running (in the YH races),” said Olson, who graduated with Knight and is currently a third-grade teacher at Bresnahan School. “We took a bunch of donations, which was great, but we wanted to do something. This is the first time any of us have done something like this.”

And likely not the last.

The scholarship, currently $2,000, was created in 2005 and is awarded annually to a graduating, college-bound NHS female or male who “demonstrates a free spirit and creative vision for his or her life pursuits,” according to the criteria.

So far, as many as 35 runners representing the NLK Scholarship team are expected to participate, most of whom will run the 5K. They will be recognizable by a heart with a rocket soaring through the middle — symbolic of a tattoo Nicole had.

“I’m not surprised that Nicole, even in death, continues to bring her community together,” said Peter Lemieux, Nicole’s younger brother, now a San Francisco resident who will board a red-eye flight to Boston tonight in time for the 5K. “My sister touched a lot of hearts.”

‘Nicole was Everywhere, Involved in Everything’

Perhaps there is no greater honor or tribute to a person’s life than having a scholarship in his or her name, perpetually enabling someone with similar qualities to pursue a dream.

Nicole was that kind of person, whose energy created ripples; whose tragic death, absolutely devastating, prompted many to carry on and thrust her spirit.

“Nicole was one of those people who was everywhere, involved in everything,” said Olson, who graduated from NHS with Knight. “She left anyone who knew her with a special feeling. She was one of those people who touched everybody. Everyone she knew had a story to tell about her.”

Nicole graduated from Newburyport High in 1986. She was the senior class president and the prom queen. She played field hockey and was an exemplary student — ranking near the top of her class — and moved on to an Ivy League school.

“When I was growing up, our home was, as my mom referred to it, Grand Central,” Lemieux recalled. “Study groups in the morning, class meetings in the afternoon, late-night hanging out after Cumberland Farms turned out the lights. Our kitchen never knew quiet when Nicole was around.

“I’m sure that when our group passes 350 High Street, our old home, we’ll all be remembering those days in the kitchen fondly,” Lemieux added.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990, Nicole moved to New York City where she held positions at Saatchi & Saatchi and Conde Nast, and helped launch fashion magazine Details (Tom Brady graces this month’s cover).

‘Nicole was really fearless’

Switching gears, she enrolled in the renowned Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute in Paris and earned her grand diplome in 1996. She moved back to New York, where she managed Balthazar’s Bakery in Soho and helped open Nick and Toni’s Café on West 67th Street in Manhattan.

Nicole returned to Newburyport to care for her mother, Lily, who passed away in 1999, then returned to New York where she delved back into fashion and began coursework at Fashion Institute of Technology.

“Nicole was really fearless, and she could cross subcultures and relate to all kinds of people,” Lemieux said. “I think that made changing careers easy for her. There wasn’t an environment that she couldn’t successfully transcend. She didn’t want to lead a boring life, even after the diagnosis.

“Fear was not one of her traits,” Lemieux added. “I think that was reflected in everything she did.”

Nicole met Andrew in Paris in 2002, and the two married in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2004.

It was in November 2001 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she gallantly fought for four years. The Frank E. Campbell Chapel in Manhattan overflowed for her funeral, and many braved the cold, rainy weather at a candlelight vigil at Atkinson Common a week later.

Nicole’s obituary, written by her father, Barry, told of her “high energy, wit, beauty, charm and spirit. She enjoyed all social circles, from high society events to thrift shop sales. Doormen and security guards up and down Madison Avenue knew her by name, as did dog walkers in Central Park and movie stars in Soho. But what Nicole cherished most were the underappreciated and one-of-a-kind characters she met through her travels.”

“No doubt about it, Nicole was popular, but not in a way that made her peers feel jealous or insecure,” Lemieux said. “She attracted friends of all types like a magnet.”

Just the Beginning

The NLK Scholarship Award was first presented in 2006 to Vanessa Haroutunian, who is currently studying at Bard College, located just above New York City. This year’s recipient, Danielle Green, will attend the University of New Hampshire.

Like Nicole, Haroutunian was seemingly everywhere during her time at NHS. She was an athlete and a musician; an award-winning photographer and artist whose works won honors from the Newburyport Art Association and the Worcester Art Museum.

An aspiring writer, Green wowed Olson and the scholarship committee with her essay on how she would use the scholarship to fulfill a life of creativity, as well as the fact that she has held a steady job throughout high school.

“We have had two really great recipients,” Olson said. “I want to be up there in 50 years presenting this scholarship. It is just a nice opportunity to give something to someone with the same qualities as Nicole.”

Nicole was always fit, Olson said, but it was later in life that she discovered running. Kind of like the group who will represent her scholarship on Tuesday.

“I’m not a serious runner, but that may change,” Lemieux said. “Given the initial response to what Nonie has started for this year’s run, I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes an annual tradition. And that might be all the push I need.”

When a member of Nicole’s team runs by, cheer for them, offer water, or even better, contribute.

“Hopefully in a few years,” Lemieux said, “Sofia will be leading the charge down High Street during Yankee Homecoming, feeling her mother’s spirit in full effect and leaving her own unique footprint on Newburyport’s pavement.”



How can you help?

The Nicole Lemieux Knight Scholarship team is accepting donations and sponsorship opportunities. Checks can be made out to ECCF (reference Nicole Lemieux Knight Scholarship on the memo line) and sent to Nonie Olson, 25 Cutting Drive, Newburyport, MA 01950; or to ECCF, Nicole Lemieux Knight Scholarship, 15 Cherry St., Danvers, MA 01923.