The Chardon community came together yet again Saturday afternoon to dedicate the Chardon Living Memorial Park — a place to remember the three Chardon High School students who were fatally shot Feb. 27, 2012 — to honor the survivors and to embrace life, share experiences or simply reflect.
The Chardon community came together yet again Saturday afternoon to dedicate the Chardon Living Memorial Park — a place to remember the three Chardon High School students who were fatally shot Feb. 27, 2012 — to honor the survivors and to embrace life, share experiences or simply reflect.
“This is a very special occasion,” City of Chardon Mayor Nancy McArthur said, as she welcomed approximately 100 people to the Oct. 7 dedication. “It is a day of remembrance, but also one of celebration as we come together as one community.”
It has been more than five years since tragedy struck Chardon, when fellow classmate T.J. Lane gunned down Daniel Parmertor, 16, Demetrius Hewlin, 16, and Russell King Jr., 17, in the high school cafeteria. Lane, who is serving three life sentences without parole, also injured three other students, including Nick Walczak, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.
“Prior to and since that terrible day, many other schools and communities have also suffered from senseless acts of violence,” said McArthur, requesting a moment of silence for the police officers recently shot in Willoughby Hills and the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest in modern U.S. history.
“I am very proud to be associated with our wonderful first responders, our school administrators, teachers and students, our city staff and faith community, who all worked together during and after that traumatic day,” McArthur said.
Added the mayor, “This living memorial park is the physical manifestation of how our community has once again come together as one. It allows us to grieve with one another and to support each other as we move through this healing process.”
City Manager Randy Sharpe provided a brief history of the project and noted everyone attending Saturday’s dedication has been affected in some way by the senseless tragedy in 2012.
“Each and every one of you has played a part in bringing this park to reality,” Sharpe said. “That’s what community is all about.”
He explained a steering committee was formed about six months after the shooting and met on and off for several years, before transitioning the project to the fundraising and implementation team.
In May 2013, the steering committee came up with a mission, Sharpe said, which was to create a permanent physical memorial for Chardon and other communities to honor the lives lost, celebrate the survivors and acknowledge the community that came together to support one another in the aftermath of the CHS tragedy.
“The committee envisions the memorial to be a place of remembrance, peace and spirituality,” Sharpe said of the group’s mission statement. “The memorial will serve to provide comfort and hope for the community at large.”
Months later, the group concluded the memorial needed to be a living memorial, to not only remember and honor the memory of Daniel, Demetrius and Russell, “but to celebrate life and survival by encouraging children to play on the playground, adults to engage in physical activity on the fitness center and to provide a place of reflection and contemplation along the trail or at the reflection center.”
Then, in 2015, Sharpe said he put out a call for someone to help take the project from concept to construction.
Steve Turpin answered that call and afterward, the group blossomed and grew, added Sharpe.
Chardon Tomorrow, the city’s nonprofit Main Street program, offered to be the fiscal agent for the group. The committee raised more than $400,000 in donations and in-kind services and adopted a new goal: To design and build the park by June of 2016.
While the group missed that mark, Sharpe said that was not important.
“What’s important is that everyone who has a heart for Chardon — the community members, clergy, school leaders, teachers, students, city council, staff — all came together to build this park and to make it a reality,” he said.
Sharpe thanked Dale Griffis and Cold Harbor Building Company for volunteering to be the general contractor and oversee construction of the 17-acre park, which connects city and school district property at 220 Basquin Drive.
“When we are lucky, we meet a few extraordinary people in our lives,” Turpin said. “Through the course of this project, I’ve had that pleasure for sure, by getting to know a truly extraordinary community.”
He added, “It’s been said that of everything bad comes something good. Today’s dedication clearly demonstrates that.”
Turpin called the park a sanctuary, a place of reflection and recreation.
“It is all that, but much more. This park is a tribute to the human spirit. Yes, it is time and we will never forget. We also will never forget that Chardon . . . ‘takes care of their own,’” Turpin said, quoting former Chardon Police Chief Tim McKenna.
That was proven by donations from dozens and dozens of individuals, businesses and organizations, not only from Chardon and other local communities, but from communities as far away as California.
Former CHS students Katie Kalis and Dominic Ferrante spoke about the impact the school shooting has had on their lives.
“In the scheme of things, it would be a better day if there was no need for a ceremony and the tragedy in 2012 never did occur,” Kalis said. “But, unfortunately, it did occur and now nearly six years later we find ourselves reflecting on a moment that certainly and significantly impacted our students, faculty, community and especially the families of those injured and lost.”
Kalis said the shooting should not define Chardon, but is a part of its history.
“And, although it is still very difficult to fathom, it was important that we honor our loved ones and the survivors,” she said.
Kalis said it was important to former, current and future CHS students that the memorial was more than a statute to look at, but a place to reflect, appreciate and celebrate life.
“It is a place where families can go to laugh together, cry together and to spend time with one another,” added Kalis. “This park is just that and more.”
Ferrante reflected on how Chardon has moved forward since February 2012 and has grown stronger and better than ever before.
“I am proud to say when I move on, that I am from Chardon, I am a Hilltopper,” he said. “Once a Hilltopper, always a Hilltopper.”
State reps. John Patterson, D-Jefferson, and Sarah LaTourette, R-Chester Township, also spoke at the dedication.
Patterson said for him, one word summed up the project’s journey and community support: family.
“We have such an incredible family, one family here, in Chardon and in Northeast Ohio. One family with, indeed, one heartbeat,” said Patterson, whose district includes part of the Chardon Schools.
He and LaTourette presented a commendation from the entire Ohio House of Representatives in honor of the dedication.
Geauga County Sheriff’s Office victims’ advocate Tracy Jordan came up with the idea to make the park a living memorial.
She thanked all the first responders and said a special bench in the park was dedicated to them.
“All they knew was that Chardon needed help and they heeded the call,” she said.
Jordan remarked even today when she is driving around the county, she sees red hearts and her thoughts immediately go back to that day.
“I remember how everybody came together to support each other,” she said. “Strangers were passing out water bottles, adults and kids were holding up their hands in the shape of a heart, sharing their love and support to Chardon.”
She said she never will forget the countless schools that supported Chardon at basketball games, wearing the Hilltoppers’ black and red team colors, and sending love with photographs, prayers and posters.
“This park is more than a park. This is a place to connect. This is why the mothers of the three boys who lost their lives that day wanted a living park,” Jordan said. “They all agreed they wanted a park full of children laughing, families spending time together. I believe we finally have gotten there after a very long journey. Every component of this park is dedicated to the love of families.”
Jordan said the outdoor fitness center is dedicated to Demetrius, who took pride in taking care of himself, inside and out.
“Our hope is that the fitness center will be used by the young, the old and everybody in between,” she said.
The playground area is dedicated to Russell, who Jordan said loved spending time hunting, fishing and camping.
“As I look at the new playground, the blue reminds me of a lake, the net to catch the fish,” she said.
The refurbished trail is dedicated to Danny.
“Danny was known as young, wild and free,” Jordan said.
“We now have this beautiful walking nature trail that has such breathtaking views,” she added. “As people use the trail, our hope is for them to be in the moment and to remember what is important.”
Finally, the reflection center is dedicated to the Chardon community. Visitors will find a heart-shaped sculpture titled “Echoes of the Heart.”
“This is a place where you can sit and reflect,” said Jordan, adding one of the definitions of reflection is the return of light, something that helps one see more clearly.
“Our hope is people will use the reflection center for what they may need,” she said.
She imparted one final thought on the living memorial: “One day at a time. This is enough. Do not grieve over the past, for it is gone. Do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.”
Editor’s Note: We’d like to thank Dave Jevnikar and G-TV for providing coverage of Saturday’s dedication, allowing the Maple Leaf to report on it.
