Larry Worcester will remember Emmalee Carney for her work ethic, resourcefulness and advocacy for fellow students.
Carney, a 17-year-old high school junior from Washburn, died in a Dec. 27 snowmobile crash.
“I was really proud of the way that she was growing up, she was maturing,” Worcester, the superintendent of MSAD 45 and principal of Washburn District High School, said in an interview with the Bangor Daily News. “[She] was just doing really well, especially this year.”
Carney was the passenger on the speeding snowmobile, driven by a 17-year-old boy, when it failed to make a 90-degree turn and struck a curb. The teens were ejected, Maine Warden Service spokesperson Mark Latti said after the crash.
The boy, who was taken to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor with injuries, has not been publicly identified.
Carney was on Washburn’s softball team and this year had enrolled in the health and medical sciences program at the Caribou Tech Center, based at Caribou High School, which puts students on the path toward earning certified nurse’s assistant credentials.
Many from that class traveled to the Washburn high school on Dec. 28 for an afternoon gathering for friends and family of Carney, as the school of fewer than 100 students came together to process the tragedy.
“I bet half of her class from Caribou came over, students and her teacher,” Worcester said. “That kind of says a lot. She just had an impact. People liked her … and it wasn’t anything that she did, it’s just who she was.”
Worcester described situations where Carney came to him to resolve what she viewed as problems in the school, which he saw as one of her strengths.
“She had strong convictions,” he said. “She advocated for herself and others, too. If she felt something wasn’t quite right, she wasn’t afraid to come into my office and say, ‘Well, what do you think about this?’ And sometimes you’ve got to listen and say, ‘You know what, you’ve got a point.’”
Worcester admired Carney’s work ethic and commitment to keeping her grades up. She “had a positive impact on everybody around her,” he said.
“I was telling people she did so many good things in such a short time,” he said. “We just wish it could have been more … I’ll miss her. I’ll miss her a lot.”
A memorial service for Carney is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Washburn District High School.