Students, families and members of the community gathered in Chardon Square Wednesday to honor the one-year mark of the deadly shooting that took the lives of three students and injured two others.

In the past year, students and residents of Chardon came together to mend the tight-knit community that was shattered by the shooting. The town continues the healing process by thanking those who have helped the community recover.

Chardon School District superintendent Joseph Bergant II addressed the community in a gathering in Chardon Square to thank students and families for their active role in helping to move forward.

“Chardon schools and its community are moving forward toward healing from this tragic event that again started our day one year ago today, Feb. 27, 2012,” Bergant said. “The loss of the three young men will impact us all forever.”

As members of the community continue to help each other, students thanked them for the kindness and support they received after the shooting at the afternoon commemoration event in the square.

“During the past 12 months, Chardon High School has received the tremendous love and support of a number of different people and groups,” said senior class officer Jessie Mysyk. “The kindness has been the main building block in the year full of healing and recovery.”

Senior class officers also thanked every community across the country that kept Chardon in its thoughts and prayers in the Wednesday afternoon speech to the public in the town square. Mysyk said days after the shooting, the school received an innumerable amount of cards and letters among other things to help the healing process.

“We are one united force that has and continues to stand strong,” Mysyk said. “Our school is now a place where kindness runs rampant, good manners are overused and where you can never have too many friends.”

During the past year, students have changed how the tragedy affected the perception of the school, said Chardon High School principal Andy Fetchik.

“When the world thinks of Chardon, it thinks not of sadness, but of pride. We will not let this tragedy define us,” Fetchik said during his speech. “We control our future. We are defined by our strong will and our compassion for life.”

Through the support, Chardon has begun to move past the tragic event and focus on helping reestablish the strong-knit community that the town has been known for.

“I think the city has done very well, and the citizens of Chardon have come together and done the healing process,” said Pat Martin, the owner of Antiques on the Square. “We have a long ways to go, but it’s a good, strong community, and I think it’s done quite well in the year.”

The community also gathered Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the shooting.

“Tonight, we meet to continue to heal to get stronger one step and one day at a time,” said Chardon mayor Phil King. “We must continue to forever remember by growing together as one community through ongoing acts of kindness.”

Through all the adversity in the school, students have partnered with the community to move past the event that took the lives of their fellow students.

“But in that remembrance, we continue to establish that we are a strong community with a sense of one heartbeat,” said Bergant. “We will heal.”

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A day of hope, remembrance and reflection yesterday has marked the one year anniversary of the shooting at Chardon High School. TV2 Reporter Ashley Wallace went to Chardon to see how the community is recovering.

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Video by Ashley Wallace. Contact her at [email protected].

Families, students remember the tragic event at the one-year mark

Wednesday marked the one-year mark since the shooting at Chardon High School. Students took the day to remember and honor the students who were killed. Students completed service projects at school Wednesday while taking the time to remember their fellow classmates through a walk from the high school to the town square and a candlelight vigil to commemorate the families affected by the shooting.

When the students approached the white gazebo in the center of the town square, they lit candles to honor the victims.

“When you share a flame with someone, we will both end up with a light we can continue to share with others,” said Chardon High School principal Andy Fetchik. “The support has been amazing. It’s a symbol of coming together and healing.”

Students spent the day remembering fallen students Danny Parmertor, 16, Demetrius Hewlin, 16, and Russell King, Jr., 17, who were fatally shot. Students attended school in the morning and spent the rest of the day working on projects, such as making red ribbon wreaths for the victims’ families.

One student who walked past T.J. Lane, the shooter, moments before the shooting began said the day of service was good for all the students.

“There was definitely a somber mood, but there was definitely more of an uplifting feeling than I expected because people were helping and giving back to the community,” said Brittney Wilson, a Chardon High School sophomore. “Things have happened to keep us closer, obviously, than we ever would have been in any other situation.”

In addition to making wreaths, students made blankets for Project Linus, the organization that provided them with blankets shortly after the shooting, and drew pictures to focus their emotions in a positive way, Wilson said.

During the candlelight vigil, Dean Carlo, a youth leader for ministry group Crave 631, spoke of the love of light.

“Many have been lights to us in Chardon this past year,” Carlo said. “The country sent their encouragement to us, shining light on a dark situation. We are so thankful for their light shining in all the ways, all the way out here to us in Chardon, Ohio.”

Wilson believes it was God who saved her that morning and allowed her to help everyone heal today.

“The Lord has been what’s gotten me through this,” Wilson said. “As I got back to my classroom, I realized that could have been me, and I could have been shot at point blank. I believe God really saved my life that day.”

Through the community’s bond, the citizens came together to prove that their faith held them together.

“(The community) has proven that this is a community that has and will continue to rise above adversity,” said Chardon fire chief Larry Gaspar. “All of us working together can prove to the world that our light can never be hidden. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”

The candlelight vigil ended with a statement read on behalf of the families of the three boys killed last year. The families wanted to remind the community of how to remember the students.

“Each has been a reminder to us, not of our loss, but of the lives of three wonderful boys who we’ll always love and cherish,” Carlo read from the statement of the families. “Together as a community, we will continue to make a stand as survivors, and bring rise to hope and healing and walk away from fear and darkness.”

Contact Alexis Pfeifer [email protected].