Flight 261 memorials and services
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Here are some memorials and services honoring the people who died last Jan. 31 when Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed into the Pacific Ocean north of Los Angeles.
• Families and friends of victims will gather this afternoon at a cemetery in Port Hueneme, Calif., to bury unidentified remains in a common memorial plot. There will be a concert in the evening for about 750 mourners at the Oxnard, Calif., Performing Arts Center.
• Memorial services tomorrow will begin in the morning with the dedication of a monument at the Naval Air Station at Point Magu, not far from where the plane went down.
• Later tomorrow, friends and family members will be shown wreckage salvaged from the sea bottom at the Construction Battalion Centerin Port Hueneme. Boaters from yacht clubs in the area will transport family groups to site of the crash. There will be an hourlong countdown on the beach toward a moment of silence at 4:21 p.m., the time the plane went down. The service will feature a flute solo, "Kokopeli," one of the last pieces studied by Deborah Penna, a student at Seattle's Cornish School of the Arts who died in the crash.
• In Seattle, a similar countdown will be observed tomorrow at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E., with prayers and music. The service will begin at 3:30 p.m.
• Alaska Airlines employees will stop what they are doing at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow to mourn passengers and co-workers who died in the crash.
• Neighbors of 10 crash victims, members of two Queen Anne families who had been on their way home from a Mexican vacation, will gather with family members at 4 p.m. tomorrow for a candlelight vigil at Rachel's Park, formerly known as Soundview Terrace Park, 11th Avenue West and West Wheeler Street, Seattle. The public is invited.
Candles will be lighted for each of the 88 victims of the crash, and 10 white doves will be released to honor Rodney and Sarah Pearson and their children, Rachel, 6 and Grace, 22 months; and David and Carolyn Clemetson and their children, Coriander Barnett-Clemetson, 8, Blake Barnett-Clemetson, 6, Miles Clemetson, 6, and Spencer Clemetson, 6 months.
The following are some of the more permanent memorials or memorial funds that have been established:
• Rachel's Park is being renovated through public grants from the city and individual donations. The park is to honor all 10 members of the Pearson and Clemetson families and is named for Rachel Pearson, who lived nearby and often played there. For more information or to make a donation, see www.rachelspark.org or contact the Friends of Rachel's Park, P.O. Box 719, Seattle, WA 98109.
• The four school-age children in the Clemetson and Pearson families also are being memorialized with a plaza and garden at their school, John Hay Elementary, 201 Garfield St., Seattle. A groundbreaking ceremony was held last week.
• Families of passengers aboard Flight 261 have established a fund to build a memorial monument in Seattle. The families haven't determined a place and design for the memorial, but contributions are being collected by The Seattle Foundation. Donations may be sent to Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Seattle Memorial Monument Fund, c/o The Seattle Foundation, 425 Pike St., Suite 510, Seattle, WA 98101. For more information, call the foundation at 206-622-2294.
• A memorial in Puerto Vallarta to Linda and Joe Knight, co-pastors of The Rock Church in Monroe, who were in Mexico to work with the children living in a city dump, is in the final stages of construction. The memorial - a community shower, medical clinic and dining area for the children of about 200 families who live in filth and poverty in shanties and lean-tos at the dump - will be dedicated Feb. 15.
• Teachers at the John Stanford International School in Wallingford, have begun a joint educational project with the children living of the garbage dump, who attend two schools in the dusty hills that overlook Puerto Vallarta.
The Seattle students are producing books in English and Spanish to be delivered to the Mexican schools in May. Until then, the books will be displayed at Seattle's Children's Museum.