Schools
WCSU Holds Vigil for Fallen Student
Dong Lin was remembered fondly by friends at a vigil held for him in the rain Tuesday evening.
Dong Lin will be remembered long after the vigil held in his honor Tuesday, according to the numerous friends who remembered him after a candle lit procession across White Street.
Lin, 19, of Brookfield, was killed by a hit and run driver on Nov. 22, a night like Tuesday night, raining and cool. Police are investigating the crime. The suspect has come forward and is cooperating with police.
"My son Dan was a very good friend of Dong’s," said Eileen Costello of Brookfield, who spoke at the vigil. "And sometimes when Dan was home from school he would pick [Dong] up from school. Dan just really encouraged [Dong] to stay in school no matter how hard it was."
Find out what's happening in Danburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Reverand Mark Horton, the Protestant Campus Minister at WCSU, said the campus made all of its counseling staff available to students after the accident. He called it a tragedy.
"We're here to honor a student member of our community," Horton said. He asked the 60 people gathered at the vigil to pray for the healing of Lin's family, to preserve his memory and to work to stop the violence that took his life.
Find out what's happening in Danburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Sean Llewellyn, a junior at Brookfield High School and a friend of Dong's, painted a portion of Brookfield's Grafitti bridge in honor of Dong. “We painted a mural where we did the outline of China and in memory of Dong Li. On the top we did the Chinese symbols of peace, love, and happiness. On the side we did the Halo 3 symbol because that was his favorite game. And we put the Wendy’s symbol.
[Dong] loved to go to Wendy’s…”
“He was a really shy kid. He did not like to talk a lot, unless you talked to him," Llewellyn said. "When we got together it was always a fun time.”
A co-painter of the grafitti in Brookfield was Nicholas McCarthy-Napoli, a sophomore at Brookfield High School.
"He will always be a part of our family because we adopted him…” McCarthy-Napoli said. "[My family] took him into our house when he was younger because he never wanted to be at the restaurant."
WCSU President James Schmotter said there are plenty of best days at a college, the day you land a big donation, the day the school wins a big game and the day a faculty member wins a big honor.
"But for the worst day, the answer is the same for any university president in the country. It is the day you lose a student," Schmotter said. "A university is all about the future. It's about realizing a dream. Dong Lin won't be able to do that."
