UPDATED Friday, November 20, 2016: This story has been updated to include comments by Newtown resident Pat Tenney. Additional photos have also been added to the story.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Residents of Charlotte gathered recently for a special ceremony in a park that features a playground built to honor those killed on 12/14. This time the gathering was to formally dedicate a sculpture, The Sandy Hook Memorial Tree, which was created to honor people most in Charlotte had never met.

The dedication of The Sandy Hook Memorial Tree took place on November 7. The Queen City Youth Chorus opened the ceremony around 8:45 that Saturday morning. Speakers for the event included Mecklenburg County Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour; Dr Robert Ridgell, director of music at Christ Episcopal Church; Jim Garges, director of Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation; and Nancy Troutman, a Charlotte resident and the person who spearheaded the project that will offer a permanent memorial for women and children she never met but nevertheless mourned.

In December 2012, Nancy Troutman’s family was preparing for Christmas when 12/14 occurred.

Ms Troutman is the mother of four children ranging in age from 13 to 28, who have attended public schools. Her husband, William Jamison, is a teacher at Mallard Creek Elementary School in Charlotte.

“We are a very close family and our children are always around sharing dinners and family time, vacations, birthdays,” she said. “The fact that this tragedy included such young children completely overwhelmed us with grief for the families of the children and the six teachers and faculty. It was hard to feel joy in the season knowing that there were some families in Newtown now experiencing the most difficult emotional and painful days that any human can possibly endure.”

Within days, an ornament created by one of Lori Troutman daughters led to the creation of the steel tree that was dedicated in Charlotte earlier this month. 

City officials decided in January 2013 to create a new playground within Park Road Park. Local school children helped to design the layout of the playground, which was named to honor those killed nearly 600 miles northeast of their home city.

“The children attended an idea workshop of sorts where they were asked questions and made drawings of what a perfect playground would consist of and what they would like on this playground,” said Ms Troutman. “The design company listened to the children and created the Newtown Playground. The playground was dedicated in December 2014. It was attended by some public figures, the elementary school children that designed the playground, and many spectators.”

Construction of Newtown Memorial Playground began in October 2014, and took only one week thanks to hundreds of volunteers, according to the . Mecklenburg County (NC) Park and Rec website

The playground, also according to the website, “not only serves as a destination for recreation, but also as a tribute to the teachers and students who were lost.” Its design is “truly one of a kind — unlike any play area in Mecklenburg County. More importantly, its message was that of remembrance and solidarity for a community that lost too many too soon.”

The park was . formally dedicated in December 2014

Ms Troutman remembered reading about the playground proposal in early 2013.

“Immediately, I wanted to present to [the park and recreation department] an idea of an art piece for the playground,” Ms Troutman wrote via e-mail to The Newtown Bee. “I wanted an abstract tree, life size, and mirrors to reflect on the playground while children are playing.”

The idea for the ornamental mirrors, she said, came as an ephiphany after daughter Lori Troutman purchased 26 mirrors to make ornaments to hang from a tree in the family’s front yard within days of 12/14.

“I thought this was a very heartfelt idea and so my family hung the homemade ornaments one cold, rainy evening in almost a ceremonial type fashion while remembering the children and faculty,” Ms Troutman wrote. “I couldn’t help but cry as I felt so much grief as a parent for these parents of such young children and for all the families.”

The following day, the sun reflecting on the outdoor ornaments sent “streaks and flashes of light” into the Troutman home, she said, when the sun bounced off the ornaments.

“Looking outside in the front yard, I saw the light reflection from the mirrors dancing all over the lawn,” she said. “It was beautiful.

“I suddenly felt that this must be a beautiful representation of the spirit of all victims and how even though evil took these precious children and teachers from our world, their spirits will always be,” she said. “You can take the physical body, but you can never take the spirit, as the spirit is strong, and these dancing reflections of them show us they are forever.”

When she presented the idea of a memorial tree and mirrored ornaments to public officials, it was approved and incorporated into the park plans.

Through networking, Ms Troutman located one of North Carolina’s few female welders, Katherine Apple. According to Ms Apple, the artist “prides herself in creating metal sculptures out of reclaimed materials.”

The women met, and Ms Apple agreed to take on the project. The tree was designed to be approximately 12 feet tall.

“Katherine worked on it every single minute she could,” said Ms Troutman, who was awed at the artist devoting so much time to the memorial project, in addition to planning her wedding and holding down a full-time job.

The trunk bark was all hand formed out of 3/16-inch steel rod. Each 10 inches of the trunk took approximately eight hours to form, according to Ms Troutman. There are six branches, representing the women killed on 12/14.

Each branch took 12-16 hours to “grow.” More than 1,000  20-foot rods were used for the trunk, and 1,800 20-foot rods were used for the branches. Very impressive.

Meanwhile, Ms Troutman worked on the 26 mirror ornaments, contacting a fabricating shop, a Plexiglas distributor/manufacturer, and finding hardware, while deciding how to best make the ornaments to withstand the outdoor elements while hanging from the tree.

Eleven months later, The Sandy Hook Memorial Tree was ready for dedication. 

Dedication Ceremony

Saturday, November 7 dawned gray and drizzly in Charlotte.

Newtown residents Pat Tenney and her daughter Kelly had traveled to North Carolina for the dedication, after hearing through one of Mrs Tenney’s nieces about the sculpture and the city’s plans for put it into the park.

“The morning of the dedication was the first time we saw it,” Mrs Tenney said November 20. “There was a children’s singing group that was just finishing up a performance, and right away that got my emotions going, seeing all those kids lined up in front of the tree.”

The Queen City Youth Chorus, a communitywide music education program for students in grades 3-12 offered through Christ Church Charlotte, was the group singing as guests arrived at the playground that morning. Their participation in the dedication, Nancy Troutman said, “came about due to a connection of one of the parents of a child that was a victim [of 12/14]. Strange how this is such a small world.”

Mrs Tenney remembers the morning as “unfortunately, kind of a dreary day. It was raining off and on,” she said.

The Memorial Tree, however, she said, “is a remarkable piece of art.

“There was so much work, and so much feeling, that went into creating it,” said the former Sandy Hook Elementary School educational assistant.

Looking at the tree, she said, “just made me feel a combination of sadness, for the reason it was there, and just warmth and comfort, that these people so far away from Newtown really still care and think about us, and are doing what they can to keep the memory of what happened here in Newtown alive.

“It was just an incredible feeling,” Mrs Tenney shared.

“In no way was I thinking that I was representing Newtown,” she said. But between her time working at the former school building on Dickinson Drive, along with the fact that both of her children both went through school there, “I just felt such a connection when I heard about something that was happening so far away.

“I just had to be there, and I was so glad to be there. People were just so warm, and friendly, and grateful.”

Following the brief dedication ceremony, Pat and Kelly Tenney were able to introduce themselves to Nancy Troutman and Katherine Apple.

“They were so overwhelmed, and grateful, that someone from Newtown would go all the way to Charlotte for the event,” Mrs Tenney said. “There were lots of hugs, there were lots of tears. It was such as warm, and wonderful feeling, that there people would do this, mostly for the families who lost someone that day, as well as whole community of Newtown, and I told them that.”

The women were proudly wearing Sandy Hook Promise T-shirts that morning, and shared some SHP bracelets Mrs Tenney had picked up from the locally based national organization with a mission or preventing gun-related deaths.

“They were so interested, and grateful, that we came down,” Mrs Tenney said.

“We were honored,” Ms Troutman said of the mother-daughter team on hand for the ceremony.

The sculpture, Ms Troutman said via e-mail November 16, “really has some significance and we want all of the families to know we think about them and have not forgotten.”

A plaque was placed at the base of the tree, with an inscription that reads in part: “Beacons for all, Children of Sandy Hook / Fearless protection of purity, / Teachers of Sandy Hook / Interminable spirits return your peace / and love of our world / As your reflections dance evermore.” The words are from a poem written by Ms Troutman and her husband.

With The Sandy Hook Memorial Tree now in place, and formally dedicated, Ms Troutman feels secure in the idea that a steel sculpture in a park near the center of The City of Industry will always stand tall and proud.

“We feel that this art piece is more of a personal representation of the children and faculty at Sandy Hook as The Sandy Hook Memorial Tree contains a specific ornamental piece for each life lost that day,” said Ms Troutman. “But they will forever live on as theirs spirits dance among the children at play.”