Boy Sends Clinton $1,000 for Deficit

SEATTLE — President Clinton Monday telephoned Larry Villella, a 14-year-old high school freshman in Fargo, N.D., who had sent the White House a $1,000 check to help cut the deficit.

Clinton called the boy from aboard Air Force One during a flight from San Jose to Seattle.

“I think it’s a remarkable thing for a 14-year-old young American to do,” he told Villella, who raised the money from a business he started three years ago. “I really appreciate it. . . . Citizens are not in the habit of sending money.”

He told Villella he was a “symbol of what’s best about this country.”

Villella sent the check by overnight mail last week and asked the President to devote $900 to deficit reduction and the other $100 to AIDS programs, the environment, education, housing, drug rehabilitation and other programs.

Villella calls his business, which takes care of trees and shrubs, “Con-Serve Products.” He said in his letter that his sister tried to talk him out of sending the money, but he said he was trying to “make a point” and he wanted to “eliminate the middleman.”

Clinton told him that he would accept the money and see if it could be spent the way Villella wished.