Rotary Sponsoring 8 Scholarships to Women's Personal Safety Training

The Rotary Club of Westborough will sponsor eight scholarships to a women's personal safety training program being held in three weeks, club officials said Wednesday.

The scholarships to the "Empower The Girls We Love: Personal Safety Training 101" program will be coordinated through Westborough Youth and Family Services, club officials said.

The program will be offered to Westborough-area women by SAM Training LLC at Westborough’s Tatnuck Bookseller on Jan. 4 and Jan. 5. There is a $35 fee. "Proceeds above the costs to produce the event will be donated to the Marriott Family Fund," according to SAM Training's website.

Resident Alisa Stone arranged for it.

She recently said being mugged about 15 years ago, a desire to train her family in safety techniques, and the murder of Westborough teenager Lizzi Marriott inspired her to do so.

The program is open to all women, but “there’s a special focus on the high school to college-age community,” Stone said.

In Your Shoes will make financial assistance available for Westborough residents and Westborough businesses, Stone said.

According to New Hampshire authorities, Westborough High School 2011 graduate Lizzi Marriott, 19, attended a night class at the University of New Hampshire on Oct. 9 before she went to visit a friend in Dover, N.H.

Although the circumstances of her death have not been made public, authorities say that Seth Mazzaglia, 29, of Dover strangled and/or suffocated her inside of his Sawyer Mill apartment. Based on information they received, the Coast Guard and New Hampshire Marine Patrol have been searching the waters around Peirce Island in Portsmouth to recover her body.

Mazzaglia was charged with second degree murder and is being held at the Strafford County Jail in Dover without bail. He is awaiting indictment.