Lake Zurich neighbors came together to light luminaries, on Friday night, the one-week anniversary of the Sandy Hill Elementary School tragedy.
The Light the Night for Newtown was encouraged by Village President Suzanne Branding as a way to show the community of Newtown that people across the country care about them.
One neighborhood that had numerous luminaries was Red Bridge subdivision of Lake Zurich. Red Bridge resident Shelly Carlson was the force behind the Light the Night for Newtown event.
Carlson explained her inspiration:
When I saw on the Patch FB page that Grayslake had done a similar thing-I thought it would be wonderful if our community could do the same type of thing. Newtown, CT could be Lake Zurich, IL. We have a close knit town, we have been recognized nationally for our community. I know a lot of people in our town and I knew we could all get behind this! I think we all just wanted to do something….there’s that constant feeling of “If only I could help, if only we could do something for them.”
The Chicago Magazine has ranked our High School as one of the best in Lake County. People move here to raise their kids. When images of the victims and their families are shown on TV…..they look like our kids. All of our teachers would have done their best to try and save our kids, just like the staff at Sandy Hook did. We have a great town.
Lighting candles and standing out in the cold won’t bring the victims back-but hopefully we can let Newtown know that far away in a Northwest suburb of Chicago-there are those who are praying for them and will never forget. I think Mayor Branding said it the best when she said, “We weep with you. You are not alone.”
