Texas. Rhode Island. Ohio. New York. South Carolina. People from nearly every state in the U.S., and from countries across the globe, have come to Newtown in the past 10 days.
They cry. They pray. They walk slowly through thousands of memorials left in the village of Sandy Hook as if they were on sacred ground. They are here to mourn and to celebrate the lives of the 20 children and six adults who were killed at Sandy Hook School on Dec. 14. They are here for Newtown.
The town will begin collecting up all the materials left at those memorial sites, including teddy bears, toys, cards, flowers and signs, after Jan. 1 and will compost them into a permanent future memorial, the Danbury News Times reports.
The newspaper says that First Selectman Patricia Llodra sent a recorded telephone message to all Newtown residents on Saturday night. The message said, in part that the town's Public Works Department will collect all of the materials will recycle it into soil or some type of blocks.
"This will be sacred soil, holding all the sweet messages and symbols of love and hope, of kindness and sadness, visions for a better future and promises to forever remember the ones lost in this sad attack," her message said.