Summer finish seen for Columbine shrine
About $170,000 still needed for victims' memorial
Charley Able, Rocky Mountain News
Published February 20, 2007 at midnight
Construction of a permanent memorial to the victims of the Columbine High School slayings bogged down because of winter weather, but the man overseeing the project said he still hopes for completion this summer.
"We haven't been able to work for about the past month because of the snow and the mud," said Bob Easton, chairman of the Columbine Memorial Committee. "With the delays, we are looking at July, possibly August, of this year for completion and dedication. That just depends on what happens with the weather."
Work on the memorial, which will rest in a swale between two hills at Clement Park adjacent to the school, is about 40 percent complete, Easton said.
Easton has fought for construction of the memorial since the dismantling of temporary memorials started by friends and classmates of the victims in the hours following the school shootings.
Easton also is executive director of Foothills Park and Recreation District, which operates Clement Park.
The memorial will commemorate the 12 students and a teacher killed in the April 20, 1999, rampage by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who took their own lives the same day.
But the memorial committee remains about $170,000 short of the $1.5 million needed to complete the memorial, which is being built on a one-acre parcel at the park.
"We are still working on some in-kind things, but we still need $167,000," Easton said. "We will be rolling out a campaign toward that sometime in the next month or so."
The memorial fund has collected about $200,000 since former President Clinton pledged a $50,000 contribution when he spoke at a June groundbreaking ceremony.
A more elaborate memorial originally was estimated to cost about $2.5 million, but fundraising faded in the aftermath of other tragedies, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the devastating 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and the 2005 destruction left by Hurricane Katrina.
In response, the memorial committee last year decided to scale back its plans, adapting the design to fit the new $1.5 million target.
The new design is based on two circular elements, an inner Ring of Remembrance that will include 13 stations, one for each of those killed by the gunmen. Messages from the victims' families will be etched into the ring's stone walls.
An outer Ring of Healing will display the engraved words of injured victims, other Columbine High School students, teachers and staff and members of the community.
An 80-foot waterfall in the original design also has been downsized.
And two staircases that would have taken visitors to the top of one of the adjacent hills have been eliminated.
To contribute, contact the Columbine Memorial Fund, c/o Foothills Foundation, P.O. Box 621788, Littleton, CO, 80162- 1788.
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