‘She found sparkle and joy in everything’
WESTFORD >> When Laura Lamore first arrived at Nashoba Valley Technical High School, the music program was still in its infancy. But over 13 years, Lamore carved out a space for the students who didn’t quite fit in, those with creative interests that didn’t always align with the school’s emphasis on technical trades.
Through choir and a makeshift “rock band,” introducing unique courses of her own design and wearing silly outfits — dressing as a shark and a banana — to school, Lamore welcomed all young musicians, singers and performers into her classroom.
The previous school year would be her last. After battling ovarian cancer since 2019, Lamore passed away May 24 at 37 years old.
During the school’s home football game Friday night, coaches, cheerleaders and a visiting marching band honored Lamore’s commitment to musical education and her impact on dozens of students — and nearly everyone on and off the field wore teal pins, symbolizing Lamore’s fight with ovarian cancer.
Athletic Director Stacy Coccia, as well as the team’s coaches, also wore “Live like Laura” shirts in memory of a “special person and friend.”
“She found sparkle and joy in everything,” Coccia said of Lamore. “She absolutely loved Nashoba Tech, loved her students, loved teaching them about music and all kinds of different facets about music… She really just did a phenomenal job of working with the students and making everybody always feel so welcome and wanted in her classroom.”
While going through treatment, Lamore pushed herself to come into work, even sometimes on the days she had trouble walking. Coccia said Lamore wanted to be present, to greet kids coming into school. Her students were constantly on her mind, Coccia said, even toward the end.
Lamore taught “the psychology of music” and organized kids across the school’s 10 towns into a performance group. By Coccia’s account, Lamore tried hard to bring her students together and have fun.
“It was a huge loss for us and the whole Nashoba Tech community,” Coccia said.
Athena Scarmeas, 30, a 2011 Nashoba Tech graduate and former student of Lamore’s, performed the national anthem before the game. It was Lamore who taught her to play piano and simultaneously sing, and helped reinforce Scarmeas’ classic opera training.
Thinking back on her time in Lamore’s classroom made Scarmeas emotional. Under Lamore’s direction, she and other students performed in a singing competition, Scarmeas said. Lamore was supportive, had a “fun personality” and made Scarmeas and others want to learn, she said.
“She was one of the best teachers,” Scarmeas said. “She was very sweet, loving and opened her classroom to everybody and everybody… She deserves everything.”
During her time at Boston University, Lamore performed with the school’s marching band during hockey games‚ a signature part of the student experience. Nashoba Tech doesn’t have a marching band, leading Coccia to invite Westford Academy’s Ghosts Marching Band to play as a tribute to the late music teacher.
Adam Shekleton, WA’S director of bands, brought about 50 members of the band to Nashoba Tech’s football field to play in the stands and perform music from the soundtracks of Studio Ghibli films during halftime.
Shekleton, who is in his third year at WA, said the connections music teachers make with students is special. Sometimes it’s only for a semester or their entire four years of high school, but either way, they take care of each other, Shekleton said, because “it’s a band thing.”
For that reason, coming to Nashoba Tech to pay homage to Lamore was a no-brainer, Shekleton said.
“Music brings people together. That’s what I tell the kids. That’s why we do it,” Shekleton said. “To be able to be there for them as they’re experiencing some of their own trials and tribulations, which we all go through, is just so important.”
By the halftime show, the sky displayed brilliant pinks, oranges and blues, probably the result of Hurricane Lee’s approach, but it perhaps took on a more sentimental meaning for those honoring Lamore.
Lamore’s husband, Ryan, performed the coin toss and stood on the sidelines, wearing his late wife’s Viking helmet, decorated with music notes, sequins and flowers. Since her passing, Ryan Lamore said many of her students have shared how “she changed their life and helped them get through high school.”
Despite the pain and physical complications she experienced during and after treatment, his wife transformed into her positive, bubbly self at Nashoba Tech, he said. From his view, Laura Lamore was doing what she loved, and through it all, she was “always smiling.” After earning her doctorate — while fighting cancer — her students began calling her “Docl,” but many called her “Mama Lala,” because many considered her a second mother, he said.
Seeing the school community rally behind her and show up to memorialize her at the game was “amazing,” Ryan Lamore said. Though she’s no longer here, he said she continues to inspire.
“She had a light and a sparkle to her, and she instilled that into her students,” he said. “The awesome thing is that that sparkle comes back. They come back and they tell me a silly story of something that she did.”
Though the evening’s festivities were not enough to pull off a win against the Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School Cougars, Lamore’s spirit was palpable.
Lamore’s family, with support of Nashoba Tech staff, are creating the Dr. Laura Lamore Memorial Scholarship and raising funds for its first award this spring, Superintendent Denise Pigeon said.
In her absence, the school aims to honor Lamore by “remembering the positive,” which she brought with her every day, Pigeon said.
“She just believed in making people feel comfortable around her and spreading happiness and joy,” Pigeon said. “She would light up a room with her positive nature.”