Sandy Hook memorial opens a month before 10th anniversary of massacre
Global News
A memorial to those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting opened to the public Sunday, a month before the 10th anniversary of the massacre.
A memorial to the 20 first graders and six educators killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting opened to the public Sunday, a month before the 10th anniversary of the massacre.
No ceremony was planned at the site a short distance from the school. It has become a custom in Newtown on anniversaries and other remembrances of the shooting to mark them with quiet reflection.
Some victims’ relatives were given a private tour of the grounds on Saturday.
“I think they deserve not to have the bright lights of the world on them,” said Newtown First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, the town’s top elected official.
The memorial was designed as a peaceful place of contemplation. Paths with a variety of plantings lead to a water feature with a sycamore tree in the middle and the victims’ names engraved on the top of a surrounding supporting wall.
The water flow was engineered so floatable candles, flowers and other objects will move toward the tree and circle around it.
Like some other victims’ relatives, Jennifer Hubbard saw the memorial in a private appointment before this weekend. Her daughter, Catherine Violet Hubbard, 6, was one of the children who died in the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012.
“It took my breath away in the sense that to see Catherine’s name and to see what has been created in honor of those that lost … the families, those that survived – they’ve lost their innocence,” she said. “And the community. We all suffered because of Dec. 14.