To 'make good things happen'

Those touched by Columbine come together in remembrance and with a purpose

Sara Burnett, Nancy Mitchell And Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 17, 2006 at midnight

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By 2:25 p.m, music was blaring from the loudspeakers and kids were playing soccer on the grass as TV camera crews began to set up.

But Taylor Kreiling, 10, and Katie Siebert, 6, were in full-on, hard-core solicitation mode. Toting big clear empty barrels, they showed no fear as they made their approach:

"Would you like to donate to the Columbine Memorial Fund?" they asked, smiling sweetly.

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., wasn't immune, digging into a pocket while asking an aide if she had any cash. Neither was former U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland, who forked over some green.

Not that either girl had any idea who those guys were.

They did know Anne Trujillo, the Channel 7 anchorwoman. They tag-teamed her as she sat on a folding chair in a makeshift studio.

"Don't worry, girls, I'm looking," Trujillo said, while also searching her purse for a piece of paper to sign an autograph for a fan.

"She gave me $10," Taylor said excitedly, as she zoomed away from Trujillo to her next target.

A few minutes before the ceremony began, the girls took a break. They eye-balled the mostly $1 bills, mixed with a few $10s and $20s, in their barrels and then used them as chairs.

It had been a pretty good day so far, they thought. They were hoping to end up with $100 each.

"Somebody said Bill Clinton would donate the rest of the money," Taylor said. Less than an hour later, the former president pledged another $50,000.

Mixed emotions

Seven years later, the emotions associated with Columbine are quick to surface. Jennifer Newton, who lives across the street from Clement Park, adjacent to the school, was at the park with her son, Trevor, when the shootings occurred.

She returned Friday with her son, now 10, and daughter Taylor, 6. She wants them to have an awareness of what happened on April 20, 1999.

And she wants them to know "that when people come together, we can make good things happen," she said.

For the Newtons, as for many families, the ceremony brought mixed emotions. Grief for the occasion marked, joy at seeing the memorial finally begun.

There was joy too, at glimpsing a president, who was kind enough to shake hands with Jennifer and with Trevor.

"It was cool," he said.

But his mom struggled to control her emotions when asked whether Columbine had changed her as a parent.

"Yes," she said quietly. "The little things matter a lot more now."

A personal tribute

About an hour before Friday's ceremony, 14-year-old Garrett Graybeal walked with his fellow bagpipers to a quiet hillside in Clement Park to practice Amazing Grace.

A few weeks earlier, pipe band leaders had decided that a young person - someone close to the age of the Columbine students who died - should play the solo at the start of the groundbreaking.

When they learned Graybeal would be starting high school at Columbine this fall, he became the obvious choice.

The Littleton teen, who started playing the pipes about six years ago with the Colorado Youth Pipe Band, practiced every day for the past two weeks.

He was nervous, he said Friday, and humbled.

"I remember it all, and I know all the families," Graybeal said. "So it's my tribute to them."

A little star power

Officially, Friday was about remembering Columbine.

But for a good number of people in the crowd, it also was an opportunity to get up close with former President Clinton.

As Clinton made his way back to the SUV he was traveling in after the ceremony, people pressed up against a temporary fence, hoping for a handshake or photograph.

"He shook my hand! He shook my hand!" Janet Zeyen, of Denver, gushed to friends, after emerging from a crowd more than 10 people deep.

Zeyen, a Denver Public Schools teacher, said she came to Littleton "for the whole thing," but was "thrilled" to see Clinton, who complimented her on the T-shirt she was wearing - a souvenir from the Clinton/Gore inauguration.

When a man in the crowd - apparently undeterred by term limits - yelled "Bill, we need you in 2008." Clinton shook his head and laughed.

Raising money pin-by-pin

Randy and Judy Brown spent their Friday afternoon on their feet, selling Columbine memorial pins to help raise the money needed to complete the memorial.

The couple, who often publicly clashed with Jefferson County Sheriff's officials, started out under a tent shelter but then moved to the lawn, where they moved from one group of people to another in the pursuit of pin sales and the accompanying donations.

"The families raised money to build a new library that their children would never use," Judy Brown said. "I think we should all support them in helping build a memorial to their children."

The pins are available for $13, or $25 for a limited edition.

Valuable lessons

Katie Siebert was not yet born when the shootings at Columbine occurred. Her mom, Joanne Siebert, said that on that day, she was one month away from her due date.

The two began fundraising for the memorial because of Joanne's friendship with Taylor Kreiling's mom, Kirsten Kreiling, who has dedicated much of the past year to the effort.

"She didn't know if there would be enough volunteers today," Joanne said. "It's been great. People have been very generous."

Joanne has explained Columbine to Katie "in terms she would understand," she said.

Friday, she said Katie again asked why two boys would shoot their classmates.

"It's important she understand bad things happen," the mom said, "but that good can come out of it."

Katie, who now attends Dutch Creek Elementary in Jefferson County, is slated to attend Columbine High School.

"I wouldn't hesitate to send her there," Joanne Siebert said. "I think Columbine is an excellent school academically and athletically."

'If everybody gave a little bit'

In an impromptu talk with a few reporters along a fenceline, Clinton recalled an earlier visit to Denver: Aug. 12, 1993, the day he came to Colorado for World Youth Day and had a private meeting with Pope John Paul II at Regis University.

"I took all my Catholic secret service agents," Clinton said. "And then one of my Jewish agents said that he was going to join an alliance with the Protestants because the Catholics were over-represented."

The spitting rain of Friday's gathering reminded Clinton of the weather when he was in Denver 12 years ago.

"That was a great day," Clinton said. "This was a great day, and I think - I hope - that we'll get the rest of the money because of this event.

"When you think about it, if everybody gave a little bit, if everybody who believed in this gave a little bit, we could get the money."

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