Carol Cash dashed toward the front doors of Columbine High School on Monday morning with two prom dresses in her hands, as 11 boxes loaded with dresses, shoes and accessories passed her heading the other direction.
“Am I too late?” Cash asked, extending her arms forward to display the dresses.
She wasn’t. The dresses were quickly packed into an additional box and shipped with the others to Red Lake High School in Minnesota for students there attending their prom Saturday.
Columbine High School students, who attended their prom April 16, collected items throughout last week to send to Red Lake. On Monday, members of the school’s student senate packed boxes, taped them shut, marked each one to identify contents and shipped them off.
Cash, of Centennial, was dropping off dresses that her daughter, Caitlin, wore to proms at Arapahoe High School.
Caitlin, who graduated from Arapahoe in 2003 and attends Mesa State College in Grand Junction, asked her mother to donate the dresses.
“It was important to her. She felt such compassion for the students who attended school here,” Carol Cash said. “She felt it was the least she could do.”
On April 20, 1999, Columbine suffered the worst high school shooting incident in the nation’s history, which left 12 students, a teacher and the two student-killers dead.
In Red Lake, some students haven’t returned to school since the March 21 shootings that left 10 dead in the town. School officials there have opened their annual junior-senior prom to all students this Saturday in hope of bringing everyone back.
Columbine students raised $580 to donate to the Red Lake prom. Accessory items include purses, makeup and jewelry. Even a “boom box” compact disc player was donated.
“I was surprised to see so much stuff come in,” said Chris Brown, a Columbine senior.
“It shows people care,” added Jack Cawelti, also a senior.
Students at Columbine are still brainstorming other ways to reach out to Red Lake, but for now they’re hoping the school’s prom will shine.
“It is really exciting,” Columbine sophomore Veronica Selzler said. “We definitely need to do something for them. It’s the best thing we could do right now.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
