Lockport to have candlelight vigil for Newtown victims
By Tony Graf Sun-Times Media December 25, 2012 10:00PM
Mourners gather for a candlelight vigil Dec. 15 in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. | AP photo
Updated: January 27, 2013 6:23AM
Lockport will hold a candlelight vigil Thursday for the victims of the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The vigil will be at 7 p.m. at Central Square, 222 E. Ninth St., in the downtown area. The city will turn off all the lights at Central Square for 27 minutes as families gather to remember the 20 children and seven adults who lost their lives in the tragedy.
“By turning off the decorations for 27 minutes, we are saying that on Earth, this holiday season has a little less light,” according to the city’s announcement. “By lighting candles, we are saying that our families are thinking about theirs.”
More than 800 students at Gompers Junior High School in Joliet last week made paper snowflakes to comfort students of Sandy Hook in the aftermath of the shooting.
The paper designs were mailed Friday and will decorate Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe, Conn., where Sandy Hook students will now attend. The Snowflake Project is spearheaded by the Connecticut Parent-Teacher-Student Association.
On Christmas Eve in Newtown, residents lit luminaries outside their homes in memory of the victims. Tiny, empty Christmas stockings with the victims’ names on them hung from trees in the neighborhood where the tragedy occurred.
Contributing: AP
