Oak Lawn to hold candlelight vigil for Connecticut school shooting victims
By Mike Nolan mnolan@southtownstar.com December 26, 2012 2:46PM
Members of the Rutter family of Sandy Hook, Conn., embrace early Christmas morning as they stand near memorials by the Sandy Hook firehouse in Newtown, Conn.,Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. People continue to visit memorials after gunman Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 14, and opened fire, killing 26, including 20 children, before killing himself. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Updated: January 28, 2013 3:48PM
Oak Lawn will hold a candlelight vigil starting at 7 p.m. Thursday for the victims of the Newtown, Conn., shootings.
Holiday lights on the Village Green, east of the village hall and north of the library, will be turned off for 27 minutes to remember the 20 children and seven adults who were killed Dec. 14. The vigil will be held at the Village Green.
“All over this country people are in tears,” Oak Lawn Mayor David Heilmann said in a news release. “I have four children 10 and under. I cannot imagine dropping them off for school and one of them not coming home.”
By turning off the lights on the Village Green, “we are saying that on Earth, this holiday season has a little less light,” Heilmann said in the news release.
“By lighting candles we are saying that our families are thinking about yours and that is so much closer to the true meaning of Christmas,” the mayor said.
At the vigil, residents can also bring cards or letters of support for Newtown that the village will mail.
