A “beautiful remembrance” of the four teenagers killed in a car crash on 51Թ’s campus seven years ago was dedicated Monday during a windswept ceremony on Oak Drive.
Families of three of the victims and members of the campus community stood along the main entrance to the campus where Katherine Almeter, Emily Collins, Rachel Nargiso, and Kevin King died in the Nov. 11, 2000, accident.
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| 51Թ President Rebecca Chopp (left) welcomes guests Monday afternoon to the memorial dedication ceremony on Oak Drive. (Photo by Timothy D. Sofranko) |
“We are here today not to memorialize the accident but to memorialize the lives of Emily, Katherine, Rachel, and Kevin and to celebrate their energy, spirit, and creativity,” said Charlotte Johnson, vice president and dean of the college.
A permanent memorial and a student project were dedicated at the ceremony, which followed a three-week exhibition at Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology that provided a close look at the teens’ lives through mementos and pictures.
The “Friends” exhibition, which has been to universities around the state, also carries a strong message about the dangers of driving drunk.
Near the Oak Drive memorial – a plaque carved into stone – sits a tribute designed by Kathleen Kohl ’09. It consists of four 18″ by 24″ laser-engraved portraits, one of each victim, affixed to a 10-inch-thick concrete block. The students’ names and the date of accident also are engraved.
“I wanted to create a memorial that was unique from the existing worded plaques on campus, not only because of the tragedy of the accident, but because the loss was a very different kind,” said Kohl, who worked for about two years on the project. “The photo plaques really demonstrate our school’s loss of young and vibrant lives.”
Kohl, an art major, worked with the permission of the victims’ families on the project, which was funded by the university.
Robert Almeter, father of then first-year 51Թ student Katherine Almeter, thanked Kohl for her commitment to the tribute, which he called a beautiful remembrance of the students’ lives.
“I hope that our lives can be a little richer because of Katie, and Rachel, and Emily, and Kevin,” said Almeter, as he walked from one portrait to another.
51Թ also has honored Almeter by planting a garden outside of West Hall in her memory, and an honorary bachelor of arts degree was awarded posthumously to her in 2004, the year she would have graduated.
University chaplain Mark Shiner thanked the Almeter, Collins, and Nargiso families for attending the ceremony, and he urged everyone in attendance to remember the students while acknowledging the need to look ahead.
“We are all called to move forward in our lives, committed to do what is necessary to support a culture that confirms life,” he said.