WINDHAM – A team of landscapers will spend part of Sunday working to revive a garden at Windham High School dedicated to Raymond landscaper Scott Libby, who was killed in 2009 at the age of 25.

The horseshoe-shaped garden near the Windham Performing Arts Center entrance to the school has grown in since being planted in the summer of 2009, just a few months after Libby’s body was found in a car on a railroad track in Bethel after being struck by a slow-moving train. A Windham man, Agostino Samson, was tried but found not guilty of murder charges later in 2009. Since the mysterious death, friends and family have tried to keep Libby’s memory alive with a Facebook page, “Justice for Scott A. Libby,” as well as various gardens in Windham and Raymond.

However, while a garden in Raymond organized by employees at H.R. Block is maintained each year, the garden at the high school needs some sprucing up. School Resource Officer Jeff Smith, who was Libby’s friend, noticed the weed-ravaged garden recently and posted a message on Libby’s memorial page. Lakes Region Farmers Market director Karen Harter, a good friend of Libby’s, as well since he helped found the market in 2007, saw the message and put out a call to action. As of Wednesday, Harter had already enlisted the help of seven “definites” and 15 “maybes.”

“But we want to get the word to anyone in the public who would like to come and help us out. Many hands make light work,” Harter said.

Harter said flower donations are equally appreciated, in the form of perennials or annuals. The gardeners will arrive at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 26.

Smith is happy his Facebook post has caused a stir.

“I didn’t start the garden but I noticed it hadn’t been planted or weeded for a couple of years, that it had went by the wayside,” Smith said. “And I certainly don’t want to see his memory fade. There’s nothing you can do to change what happened, but life has to go on.”

Unable to help Sunday, but glad to see others step up, Smith added, “I think it’s a great thing they’re trying to keep his memory alive. A lot of staff members here at the school have said Windham High School was lucky to have him.”

Friends of Libby received initial permission from school officials to erect the memorial garden. And friends now are glad to chip in now to revive the 20-foot-by-10-foot horseshoe garden patch.

One of those friends, Bob Wehmeyer, a Windham gardener and Libby’s mentor, knew Libby for 10 years and sold shrubs to Libby for his Raymond-based landscaping business. Since Wehmeyer has a business degree, he advised Libby on how to grow not only his plants, but also his landscaping business. Wehmeyer and his wife, Donna Stevens, are among the “definites” Harter has enlisted for Sunday’s garden revival.

Wehmeyer said Libby planted many gardens for homeowners in the Lakes Region in his short life, and that it’s “only fair that one garden devoted solely to his memory is being resurrected.”

“He was a wonderful, upbeat and friendly young man, always looking forward to the future,” Wehmeyer said. “Just one hell of a nice guy.”

The garden revival also pleases Libby’s cousin, Stephanie Clemens, who said she will try to drive down on Sunday from her home in Damariscotta.

“I think it’s really a great idea,” Clemens said. “It’s very fitting actually, because Scott graduated from Windham High School 10 years ago, in 2001. It was such a sad turn of events and we all miss him. And we’re thankful his friends are trying to keep his memory alive.”

And Libby’s mother, Nancy Libby Maynard of Raymond, is also pleased with the efforts to keep her son’s memory going.

“The community’s support has been unbelievable, and there’s no finer way to remember Scott than with a garden,” Maynard said.

Maynard recalled that Libby got his start in gardening while a boy. His father, who died when he was 11, gave him the option of chopping wood or weeding the garden. “He went for the garden, for obvious reasons,” Maynard said.

She also said she is still in contact with many of his friends from around the country.

“He had a great life, that’s for sure,” Maynard said.

Scott Libby, shown here manning his booth at the Lakes Region
Farmers Market before his death in February 2009, was a well-liked
Raymond landscaper and one of the founders of the market, which
meets on summer Saturday mornings at Manchester Elementary School
in North Windham. Friends are gathering Sunday to revive a garden
planted in his memory in 2009 at Windham High School.  File photo