Clinton helps launch Columbine memorial

Former President Clinton talks to Richard Castaldo at the groundbreaking for the Columbine Memorial in Littleton, Colo., on Friday. Castaldo is paralyzed from wounds suffered during the April 20, 1999, shootings at Columbine High School. (JACK DEMPSEY / AP)

LITTLETON, Colo. — Seven years after the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, hundreds of people joined former President Clinton on Friday for the ceremonial groundbreaking of a memorial honoring the 13 people slain at Columbine High School.

"We're here because we love them. We're here to honor them. We're here to remember them, this day and every day hereafter," said Dawn Anna Beck, the mother of slain student Lauren Townsend.

Clinton, who also attended a 2004 fundraiser for the memorial in the Denver suburb of Littleton, drew cheers when he said he would donate $50,000 to the $1.5 million project. About $250,000 is still needed to pay for the monument to the 12 students and one teacher shot to death by suicidal classmates Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18.

"I am here today because millions of Americans were changed by Columbine. It was one of the darkest days Hillary and I had in the White House," Clinton said. "This memorial is not only so you don't forget the people you love, but through your lives you honor theirs."

Clinton gave his brief speech as a crowd estimated by organizers at 2,000 people huddled under umbrellas through a rainstorm and light hail. At times, speakers paused as thunder rolled across the suburban park.

Beck read the victims' names and asked the crowd to remember April 20, 1999.

"Remember the love? Remember the unity? Not just in this community, but in the nation and throughout the world?" she asked.

The memorial, she said, always will be a place to reflect how lives changed because of Columbine and to better know those who were lost that day. The site is on Rebel Hill, about 500 yards from the school.

"This is kind of hallowed ground to us and to the students," said Gary Radtke, whose son was taught by Dave Sanders, the slain teacher. "This is where everybody came to grieve after the shootings."

Construction was delayed because parents worked first to raze the school library where most of the victims were killed. Then almost two years passed before everyone agreed on the memorial's scope and design.

The economic downturn after Sept. 11 forced the project to be scaled down from $2.5 million to $1.5 million.

The memorial in the Robert F. Clement Park will include a water fountain, an inner Ring of Remembrance and an outer Ring of Healing. There will be one station for each victim, and the words of those killed. Messages from their families will be engraved on the outer ring. There will be no mention of Klebold or Harris.